E. spissum of Michigan Flora.

Forming large tussocks in bogs and open conifer swamps (tamarack, black spruce), only in acidic soils.

Another cespitiose, single-headed species, Eriophorum brachyantherum Trautv. & C.A.Mey., is known rarely from the north shore of Lake Superior in Ontario. This has the lower scales of the spike appressed to ascending and lacking conspicuous whitish margins, while in E. vaginatum the lower scales are spreading or even reflexed at maturity, with broad pale to white-hyaline margins.