This is an introduced plant from South America which likes cultivated and waste ground. This one was at the foot of a pavement and garden wall but looking in allotments or park flower beds is as likely to yield a few plants. The problem with identification is that P. parviflora (Gallant Soldier) is also hairy and so could at first be thought to be P. quadriradiata. This is much the hairier of the two and has short and long eglandular hairs and a few glandular ones as well.

It is absent from much of Scotland and only found in a few places in Ireland but is common along a line linking north west England with the south east.