Sandcarpet is a perennial (sometimes annual/biennial), prickly, mat-forming species that is found in North America in California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia (USDA 2011). It was reported for British Columbia by Frank Lomer in 2006 on a logging roadbed proximal to the ocean, and is currently known from only a single location at the mouth of Muir Creek, west of Sooke, Vancouver Island. It is thought to be introduced. Habitat for this species includes "backshores of sandy beaches and on sandy soils around salt marshes" (Kozloff 2005) and "sandy beaches and hills, dunes, bluffs" (Hickman 1993).