This is a decidedly boreal species, ranging from Alaska and northwestern Canada south to Washington, disjunct in the eastern Lake Superior area, and again disjunct from northern New York and the mountains of New England to Newfoundland. Known for many years from forests north of Sault Ste. Marie in Ontario, but first collected in Michigan in 1995 (M. Jaunzems, MICH), in old-growth beech-maple forest ca. 5 km south of Lake Superior, north of Eckerman, Chippewa Co.