Local on the stony ledges of the slope of the bank of the Ohio River in the counties shown on the map. It is usually more or less frequent to common where its habitat occurs. About 4 miles east of Madison, Jefferson County, it forms a dense stand for about a quarter of a mile along the bank of the Ohio River where its common associate is Desmanthus illinoensis. In 1935 Edwin D. Hull found a colony along the New York Central Railroad tracks in Lake County. It was doubtless a railroad migrant.