Sandy, gravelly, or rocky open ground, ranging from moist sites such as shores, edges of swamps, and moist clearings to very dry sites such as jack pine plains, sandy blowouts, and dune ridges; also characteristic of recent burns. Stimulated by disturbance, so often appearing out of the seedbank along roads and in recently lumbered areas. Spreading by stout rhizomes, but individual colonies are short-lived, disappearing in a few years as succession proceeds. Typically very local wherever it occurs.

Named for Douglass Houghton (1809–1845), first head of  the Michigan Geological Survey, and famous early plant collector in the western Great Lakes Region. His herbarium is at the University of Michigan. He first collected this species in 1832 in present day Minnesota.