Historically, the Virginia habitat of this plant was maintained by wildfire that killed off woody plant species. These fire-maintained openings were favorable to herbaceous plants that require direct sunlight. Distribution Spreading pogonia is known from New Jersey to Florida. It is also found in Kentucky and Tennessee. In Virginia, where it is extremely rare, spreading pogonia has been found in eight counties.
Life History Spreading pogonia is a perennial herb.
Generally, it produces a single stem annually, with older plants more likely to produce a flower, as well as more stems. Spreading pogonia reproduces both vegetatively and by seed. The brightly colored flowers attract insect pollinators, primarily bumblebees. This strategy saves the plant some energy, but since many pollinators, especially bumblebees, learn to avoid such plants, mimics risk not getting a enough visits for successful pollination to take place. To overcome this limitation, spreading pogonia and its relatives produce a sticky pollen so that each visiting insect is more likely to carry away pollen to the next plant.