Very local, edges of cedar and balsam thickets near gravelly or rocky calcareous shores of the northern ends of Lakes Michigan and Huron, associated with such plants as Carex eburnea, C. capillaris, Linnaea borealis, and Arctostaphylos uva-ursi.

Though not an endemic, this delicate tufted sedge is a quintessential example of a lime-loving species with a distribution centered on the Straits; rarely found far inland from the Great Lakes shores. It fruits early, and is easy to overlook.