Much of its former habitat has been converted to agriculture and its range is now limited to the last remaining stretches of pristine prairie grassland in this region.

[5] This plant is present in several regions in the northwestern United States and far southern British Columbia, such as the Palouse, the Channeled Scablands, and the Blue Mountains ecoregion, including the Zumwalt Prairie.

[6] This species distribution has been reduced to patchy, geographically isolated fragments mainly due to the loss of its habitat to agriculture.

[1] Other threats include the lack of a normal fire regime, insect damage, drought, and climate change.

[6] The plant displays prolonged dormancy, where it persists underground for one or more years at time surviving on carbohydrate stores in its long taproot.