Everywhere in disturbed ground, including filled land, vacant lots, clearings; roadsides and railroads; shores and open banks. Quickly forms dense stands in forest clearings (after logging or other activity). Collected by the First Survey in 1837, with no locality, but probably in Kalamazoo or St. Joseph Cos.,, and by the 1860’s a well known weed essentially throughout Michigan.

A familiar tall weed; the densely flowered inflorescence produces a thick rod-like spike of fruits, which often lasts through the winter. The first-year rosettes of densely felted leaves are also well known to all field botanists.