Degraded prairies, railroads, open dry sandy ground. Native mostly south and west of Michigan, this prairie species is presumably native at some prairie and barren sites in southern and, especially southwestern, Michigan from Newaygo Co. southward, although not collected in a more or less natural setting until 1939 in Berrien Co.

This species is showy and occasionally cultivated, and most other records are of uncertain origin, or clearly not native. A large colony between the highway and an abandoned railroad near the Emmet/Charlevoix Co. line, for instance, is presumably adventive, as is a 1900 collection from near a railroad in Manistee Co, and several other more recent collections. Collected several times in open sandy habitats in Ontonagon Co., but these occurrences seem too far north of its contiguous range to be native.

A hybrid with H. giganteus has been found once.