Cleistesiopsis is native to the eastern and southeastern United States from New Jersey south to Florida, and west to Kentucky and Louisiana.

[3] The common names are rosebud orchid and small spreading pogonia.

Cleistesiopsis is a terrestrial orchid with an underground network of spreading fibrous roots.

Cleistesiopsis flowers in the spring (April to May) along coastal plain area and around July in the mountains.

It prefers savannas, meadows, openings woodlands, where the soil is acidic and moist and made up of rotting pine or other organic material, such as a boggy pine woodland.