Although a proposal to reject Spergularia media as a confused name (J. Lambinon 1981) was rejected, some authors still favor that argument, preferring to use the name S. maritima for this species.

Spergularia media is one of the 'highway halophytes' (A. A. Reznicek 1980) that have spread along highways that are heavily salted during the winter, where saline areas have been created. Spergularia distribution has been investigated in Ohio (A. W. Cusick 1983), where such records were first noted in the early 1970s.