Rich deciduous forests, thickets, and even marshy places; often in the same forests as the other two species but generally blooming before either of them.

The pubescence of the inflorescence and stem of this species tends to be much more appressed than it is in the other two species. The flowers are either white or purplish.

Though the Upper Peninsula records are from rich hardwoods, the northernmost Lower Peninsula occurrence, from Emmet Co. was from a "millyard" at Pellston, in 1917, and may have been an inadvertent introduction perhaps through logging equipment.