It is a typical grassland perennial wildflower, growing in a variety of plant communities including meadows and fields, under scrub and open-canopy forests, and in disturbed areas.

It grows in temperate regions where average annual rainfall exceeds 750 mm (30 in), and often where soils are heavy and damp.

[4][6][12][13] This plant was top-ranked for pollen production per floral unit sampled at the level of the entire capitulum, with a value of 15.9 ± 2 μL, in a UK study of meadow flowers.

It became an introduced species via gardens into natural areas in parts of Canada,[15] the United States,[16] Australia,[4] and New Zealand.

[11][18][19] The plant commonly invades lawns, and is difficult to control or eradicate, since a new plant can regenerate from rhizome fragments[11] and is a problem in pastures where beef and dairy cattle graze, as usually they will not eat it, thus enabling it to spread;[17] cows who do eat it produce milk with an undesirable flavor.

In New South Wales it grows from Glen Innes on the Northern Tablelands to Bombala in the far southeast of the state, and there are significant populations in the Kosciuszko National Park where it has invaded subalpine grassland, snowgum (Eucalyptus pauciflora) woodland and wetlands.

[23] Maud Grieve's Modern Herbal (1931) states that "The taste of the dried herb is bitter and tingling, and the odour faintly resembles that of valerian.

"[24] Oxeye grows wild in the Arava Desert in Southern Israel, where the flowers are picked and dried and traditionally used by Jewish Israelis to make a local variety of herbal tea.

[25] L. vulgare is widely cultivated and available as a perennial flowering ornamental plant for gardens and designed meadow landscapes.

It thrives in a wide range of conditions but prefers a sunny or part-sun location of average soil that is damp (like many in the daisy family).