In similar habitats to those of Hieracium gronovii and sometimes growing with it where their ranges overlap,though perhaps somewhat more often in dry sandy or rocky forests with oak, sassafras, aspen, pines, etc. Jack pine plains, clearings, oak savanna, mixed conifer-hardwoods, sand dunes; in old fields, but rarely moist sites.

An intermediate plant from dry sandy soil in Schoolcraft Co. (D. Henson 1269 in 1981, MICH) is apparently H. scabrum × H. venosum; a very few other odd specimens could conceivably also be hybrids.