Open often rocky forests, forested dunes (with pines), cedar-fir forests and thickets (often in calcareous sites), aspens, and hardwoods, generally quite close to the shores of the Great Lakes. A species of the northwestern United States and adjacent Canada, occurring disjunctly in the northern Great Lakes region.

The characteristic bristly pubescence on the summit of the ovary should not be confused with the feathery styles that are present in this as well as other species. The lower panicle branches reflex at maturity in this wispy and difficult to see grass, rather like those of the larger and more conspicuous Festuca subverticillata and Melica smithii, which may be nearby in more mesic sites.