Usually in sphagnum bogs and older tamarack, cedar, and fir stands; also pond and stream margins, marshy or boggy ground, alder thickets, and rarely elm-maple swamps.

The majority of our specimens are presumably the eastern North American subsp. disjuncta (Fernald) Toivonen, with inflorescences mostly 6–12 cm long, often nodding, and the spikes well separated, with the two lower spikes separated by more than 1.5 cm. This taxon occurs throughout the state. Most common in the Upper Peninsula is the circumboreal subsp. canescens with inflorescences 3–7 cm long and the spikes closer together, even the lowest separated by less than 1.5 cm. Separation of the two subspecies often seems arbitrary in Michigan, and their meaning in Michigan is unclear. Small specimens may be hard to tell from Carex brunnescens, but the papillose perigynia are diagnostic; those of C. brunnescens are smooth.