Fens, conifer swamps (tamarack, spruce, cedar, fir) especially in open areas and clearings, and wet meadows; in calcareous soils. The midnerve and margins of the scales in this species tend to be minutely scabrous or ciliate.

This is our commonest Eriophorum in southernmost Michigan, though restricted to calcareous wetlands. It is also our only species with multiple spikes to have the stems cespitose or solitary; all others are colonial from long-creeping rhzomes.