Like many other pondweeds, the variability in growth form of P. alpinus in response to environmental conditions (phenotypic plasticity) and across its geographical range has led to it accumulating a number of synonyms.

[9][10] Red pondweed is native to much of the Northern Hemisphere, including Asia (Afghanistan, China (Heilongjiang), India (Assam), Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Myanmar, Pakistan, Russia, Uzbekistan),[11] Europe (Austria, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Estonia, France including Corsica, Germany, Ireland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain (Pyrenees), Sweden, Switzerland), Greenland, Canada, and the northern United States, especially the Rockies.

[7][12] Potamogeton alpinus generally grows in neutral to mildly acid (but not very base-poor) water bodies such as lakes, slow-moving rivers and streams, and ponds.

[4][13][14] P. alpinus needs a deep fine substrate such as sand, silt or peat to root in[4] and appears to avoid exposed situations.

[5] In rivers, red pondweed can persist entirely by asexual means (rooting of stem fragments and turion-like resting bodies, and growth in summer)[5] though this may reflect weed cutting suppressing flowering and seed set.

[17] In Wales red pondweed was recently assessed as Critically Endangered,[18] and in England it is categorised as Vulnerable.

[19] Declines have also been reported elsewhere in Europe and North America; it is Regionally Extinct in Luxemburg[20] and Pennsylvania,[21] Critically Endangered in Spain,[22] Vulnerable in Germany[23] and the Netherlands,[24] Endangered in the Czech Republic,[25] the Carpathian region,[26] Flanders[27] and New Jersey and threatened in New Hampshire and New York.

[28] Potamogeton alpinus is not in widespread cultivation, and seems to be rather difficult to maintain, competing poorly with other pond plants.