This largely southeastern species is absent in the Ohio Rv. watershed north of the western Knobs, Ky. Rv. Palisades, southern Cliff Section and the central Appalachian Plateaus. Along this northern margin of the range, it occurs locally on warm slopes. To the south it is a locally common grass of submesic to subxeric woods (FNA 24). Curiously, mutica also extends north in a zone through Ill. to the Chicago area; but it is rare or perhaps overlooked in Mo. and Kans., unknown in most of Ind., all of Ohio and all of Pa. (K; Ladd & Thomas 2015).