It is native to western North America from British Columbia to Baja California and east to Montana and New Mexico.

[4] This plant occurs in pine forests, pinyon-juniper woodlands, sagebrush steppe, and grasslands, and their ecotones.

It can be found in mountain passes and high-elevation fell fields and in lower elevation desert washes.

It can tolerate a wide range of conditions, from harsh winters on exposed mountain slopes to hot summers in desert valleys.

It is a dominant species in some areas, for example, the white pine-mountain hemlock forests and shrublands in El Dorado County, California, and the sagebrush near the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station in eastern Idaho.