This plant is associated with nurse plants. It often grows beneath the branches of Ambrosia dumosa. The habitat is desert scrub. There are two main population areas in Arizona, one in the Avra Valley and Saguaro National Monument and one on the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation. This species was abundant in the Avra Valley up until the 1930s until a freeze which decimated the population. There are now a total of about 600 plants in all the populations together.