This is widespread in eastern states except for northeastern regions, but it has become generally uncommon to rare from the Ohio Valley to mid-Atlantic states (K, NS). It is the only eastern species of Eryngium not concentrated on wet sites; also, 2n = 96 versus 16 in most others. In Ky. it is generally restricted to remnants of native grassland on medium acid soils with rather low fertility. However, it ihas become widely sown for restoration of broadly-defined "native grassland" during recent decades. The plant is host to a specialist stem borer, Papaipema eryngii, which was formerly widespread across the mid-west but has now become endangered (Mankowski et al. 2014).