Dry sandy prairies, fields, plains, clearings, and oak or jack pine savannas; associated roadsides and railroads.Two Farwell collections from Keweenaw Co. (both Farwell 89, but one dated 1884 and another 1889) seem suspect, but are mapped as this species is well known from farther south and east in the western Upper Peninsula.

White-flowered plants are f. benkei (J. F. Macbr.) Fernald, and have been recorded from Kalamazoo, Mecosta, Newaygo, and Ottawa Cos.