[3] New York Scalewort is widely-distributed in eastern North America and adjacent areas of southern Canada.

[2] New York Scalewort is found primarily on the bark of deciduous trees, including oak, maple, ash, elm, eastern red cedar, hackberry, cottonwood, beech, and musclewood.

The presence of New York Scalewort is most obvious on trees with gray bark like red maple, beech, holly and some oaks.

[2] Male plants produce their reproductive organs on short lateral branches that have several pairs of leaf-like bracts.

[2] Rotifers sometimes live in the helmet-shaped lower lobes of leaves, but it is unknown whether this is beneficial or harmful to the plant.