Usually in dry, open, sandy, gravelly, or rocky ground such as oak or jack pine savanna, prairies, fields, and roadsides; occasionally in sedge meadows or other moist places; often at edges of forests and thickets, on open stream and lake banks and stabilized dunes; spreading into disturbed places.

We have two very similar looking varieties in the state: var. mollis (L.) Benth., with only minute pubescence on the lower surface of the leaves, and var. fistulosa, with some long straight hairs on the same surface. The latter is occasional throughout the state; var. mollis is more common except in the western Upper Peninsula. White-flowered forms are uncommon.