Found in the calcareous regions of the state including large portions of the Great Lakes region, and narrow river valleys and lakeshores in the High Alleghany Plateau, Northern Appalachians, and Lower New England Ecoregions. Shale variants are concentrated in the High Alleghany Plateau Ecoregion, especially the Finger Lakes region. Smaller, scattered examples of this community variant are known from the Tug Hill escarpment and the Lower New England Ecoregion.

This physically broadly-defined community is likely to be widespread worldwide. Examples with the greatest biotic affinities to New York occurrences are suspected to span north to southern Canada, west to Minnesota, southwest to Indiana and Tennessee, southeast to Virginia, east to the Hudson Highlands of New York, and northeast to New Brunswick.