Roadsides, railroads; meadows, shores, disturbed wetlands and dikes; fields, weedy among crops and in gardens; disturbed sites, including fill, parking lots, dumps. Collected at Lansing (Ingham Co.) as long ago as 1867, but not gathered again until the 1890’s in several counties (Bay, St. Clair, Tuscola, Wayne); now all too common throughout the state.

In S. arvensis subsp. arvensis, the involucres and pedicels bear numerous stiff hairs tipped with dark glands. More common in Michigan is subsp. uliginosus (M. Bieb.) Nyman (var. glabrescens Günther, Grab. & Wimmer), which lacks the glandular hairs and may average slightly smaller involucres.