Savannas, especially oak or jack pine, sometimes spruce, often in moist ground and on banks and borders; fens, wet meadows.

The pappus bristles are much more numerous than in Krigia virginica, and in both they are strongly antrorse-scabrous. This is a much larger plant than K. virginica, growing in moister and more densely vegetated (but still relatively sunny) habitats, in contrast to the bare sandy sites preferred by K. virginica.

All of our specimens from the Upper Peninsula have gland-tipped hairs at the base of the involucre and on the pedicel below it. None of the Lower Peninsula specimens bear such glands. This northern entity is the Great Lakes region endemic subsp. glandulifera (Fernald) Iltis.

A single collection by O. A. Farwell (1123b, BLH) from Keweenaw Co., is not only slightly out of range, but lacks glands. It is not mapped as we strongly suspect a mix-up in labeling.