This ranges widely across northeastern and midwestern regions of North America, with considerable variation; 2n = 10, 20, 30. It is rare to absent in southeastern states (K, W), but there is a coll. from Adams Co., Ohio (Miami Univ. herbarium), a county adajcent to LEWI. There are several older reports from Ky. (M), but there has been much confusion with pilosum, priceae, racemosum or dumosum, especially using older treatments. S. ericoides resembles those species in its small crowded, often secund heads and much reduced leaves. However, the lower inflorescence branches have a distinct tendency for ascending into particularly dense and somewhat flat-topped arrays. S. ericoides appears closer to pratense and concolor in subgenus Virgulus. Its larger leaves are mostly sessile with a somewhat flared base, as is typical for that subgenus. Its "spine-tipped" phyllaries are distinctive, being much sharper than in pilosus.