This plant grows in beach sand dunes and scrub and similar sandy habitat. It is native to the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, a land mass which is intensely developed and urbanized. The single population known on San Bruno Mountain near Daly City was discovered in 1989 and is threatened by the construction of houses in the immediate vicinity. The largest population of the plants is in the dunes at the mouth of Lobos Creek in the San Francisco Presidio. Habitat in the area is infested with non-native species such as ice plant (Carpobrotus sp.), which produces mats of herbage over the sand dunes, stabilizing the sand; the lessingia requires shifting, windblown sand habitat. Introduced trees have also altered the habitat of the lessingia. Old Monterey cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa) and Monterey pine (Pinus radiata) planted many decades ago remain in the Presidio dunes; these native California trees are not native to this particular ecosystem, and have become detrimental.