Sandy, dry open ground, in acid soils, collected from one site in Dickinson Co. in 1990 by D. Henson and A. A. Reznicek.

This resembles Carex normalis, but occurs in dry sandy open areas, has rusty brown tinted scales, and papillose sheaths. Carex tincta is relatively frequent in its contiguous range in New England, immediately adjacent New York, and adjacent eastern Canada. The sporadic distribution of C. tincta in the Great Lakes region, west of its contiguous range is peculiar and puzzling. See Rothrock, Reznicek, & Hipp. (2009) for more information.