Antennaria dioica is a plant of calcareous grasslands, rocky heath, and coastal dune slacks across the temperate northern hemisphere — Eurasia, Great Britain, the Aleutian Islands — wherever soils are lean and well-drained and competition is limited. It forms a spreading, stoloniferous mat of silver-gray rosettes no taller than four inches, slowly extending to about eighteen inches across in favorable conditions. In spring, separate male and female plants send up small stalks bearing those characteristic fluffy flower clusters that gave the genus its common name: the flower heads' bristle-like hairs reminded someone, at some point, of an insect's antennae.

This is emphatically not a plant for rich borders or humid southern gardens, where it sulks and rots. It needs gritty, rocky, nutritionally poor soil in full sun, with sharp drainage at all times. Between paving stones, in a dry rock garden, or along the top of a stone wall, it finds its best expression. Propagation by division in spring is straightforward. Tolerant of drought to a fault, it asks mainly to be left dry, sunny, and underfed. Those sensitive to ragweed or chrysanthemums should be aware that contact can occasionally cause a reaction.