Sandy ground, roadsides, railroads, fields, and disturbed places, either dry or moist; river banks. Presumably native, at least in the southern part of the state.

A species often confused with E. capillaris, E. frankii, and E. pilosa, but distinctive in its larger spikelets on appressed pedicels, the lemmas strongly nerved. The paleas are generally even more persistent than in other species, and are conspicuous on old panicles from which the lemmas and grains have fallen. Almost all our plants are var. pectinacea. Variety miserrima (E. Fourn.) Reeder (E. tephrosanthes of Michigan Flora) is known from a few old collections, and differs in having the mature pedicels spreading, rather than appressed as in var. pectinacea.