It prefers to grow in swamps, bogs, wet fields or thickets, fresh tidal and nontidal marshes, or wooded streambanks.

The species epithet palustris is Latin for "of the marsh" and indicates its common habitat.

[6] It is the only known host plant for Fagitana littera, the marsh fern moth.

T. palustris has been shown to significantly reduce the amount of Zn2+ and Cu2+, which are the main outputs of heavy metal from intensive livestock production, ex situ.

[9] There have been mixed results for whether T. palustris would be a good candidate for remediation of arsenic soil contamination.