It grows in mud or submerged in shallow fresh or brackish water in marshy areas.

When the flowers grow underwater they are cleistogamous, meaning they stay closed and self-pollinate.

[4] Alisma gramineum is widespread across temperate and subarctic portions of Asia and Europe and North Africa from France and Libya to China and Yakutsk.

It is reported from much of Canada from British Columbia to Quebec, as well as most of the western United States plus New York, Vermont and Virginia.

It is an annual plant, or a short-lived perennial, and the seeds may remain viable for some years, sometimes germinating after the ground has been disturbed.