It is native to the western United States, from New Mexico and Arizona north to Montana.

Plantago tweedyi was described and published in 1886 by Asa Gray, who named it in honor of Frank Tweedy, the first to collect it.

Leaves are basal, lance-shaped, to 13 cm (5.1 in) long, glabrous (without hairs), and somewhat succulent or fleshy.

[6] It grows in grasslands, sagebrush steppe, meadows, and on dry somewhat rocky hillsides at 1600–4000 m elevation.

[2] At the time, he was working as a topographer for the US Geological Survey in Yellowstone National Park.