[3] It forms large cushions in the tropical Andes, dominating the flora of the high level, peat-accumulating uplands, locally known as "bofedales".

[2] In the Colombia mountain ranges, D. muscoides forms an important constituent of the cushion bog, in association with Plantago rigida and Oreobolus cleefii.

[4] In the tropical Cordillera in Peru, the upland wetland areas are called bofedales; the peatlands have cushions of Distichia muscoides with mosses, including Sphagnum, Vaccinium floribundum, Puya, and Loricaria ferruginea.

Other plant communities in the bofedales include peaty meadows with grasses, mosses (but not Sphagnum), sedges, rushes and woodrushes, and streamside grassland consisting mainly of Plantago tubulosa and Werneria pygmaea.

These climatic conditions are likely to be unfavourable for D. muscoides, with the bofedales dwindling in some areas, becoming converted into puna grasslands, dominated by coarse bunch grasses which are much less nutritious for livestock.