It is native to northern North America, where it is common and widespread from Alaska to Newfoundland and into the northernmost contiguous United States.

It produces stems up to 30 centimetres (12 inches) tall and inflorescences with two or three greenish or purplish flowers, one of which is generally perfect while the others are male.

It produces haustoria which tap the roots of host plants such as spruce, pine, birch, willow, alder, and twinflower.

It is found in spruce forests on the taiga of Alaska and it is an indicator of continental boreal and cool temperate climate in British Columbia.

crispa), bog Labrador tea (Ledum groenlandicum), bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), crowberry (Empetrum nigrum), twinflower (Linnaea borealis), prickly rose (Rosa acicularis), mountain cranberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), bog blueberry (Vaccinium uliginosum), highbush cranberry (Viburnum edule), bunchberry (Cornus canadensis), one-sided wintergreen (Orthilia secunda), bluejoint reedgrass (Calamagrostis canadensis), horsetails (Equisetum spp.