Included in C. rostrata in Michigan Flora.

Common in very wet muddy or sandy places: marshy stream margins, lake shores, river banks; swamps, marshes, ponds, ditches, and bogs; wet trails and clearings in cedar swamps.

Typically a more robust plant than the quite similar Carex vesicaria, strongly rhizomatous, with culms central and thickly clothed with spongy leaf bases, the broader leaves rather strongly septate-nodulose when dry. Carex vesicaria is a clumping species, with culms lateral, lwith bladeless basal sheaths at bottom, and little or not septate-nodulose when dry.  Almost all records of C. rostrata in Michigan Flora belong here, see brief notes under that species.

This is a major dominant of peatland wetlands throught Michigan, especially in lower pH settings.