Moist places, including wet meadows, edges of swamps, and marsh borders; also disturbed sites, railroad yards. Near the edge of its range in southern Michigan, and much less common here than its close relative, H. giganteus, with which it hybridizes (see that species). Many of our records are clearly not native, and possibly only a few occurrences, like the 1903 collection by Pepoon from the border of Magician Lake in Cass Co. are truly native. 

The glabrous stems are sometimes quite glaucous in this species, in contrast to the somewhat similar Helianthus giganteus, with green, somewhat hairy stems.