Sandy or gravelly hummocks and ridges (often at the edge of cedar), wet marly sands and gravels, shores of beach pools, and limestone pavements near the shores of the Great Lakes, especially in the straits region. Inland very locally in fens, calcareous cedar thickets, limestone ledges and pavement (alvar), wet prairies, and sandy or gravelly shores, often associated with lakes and rivers. 

A very local species, except in on the calcareous shores of northern Lake Huron and Michigan. Often associated with other calciphiles such Carex garberi and Eleocharis quinqueflora.

Dr. Ithamar B. Crawe, for whom the species is named, lived briefly in Michigan, at Pontiac (Oakland Co.), from ca. 1837–1840, but the name was based on a plant collected by Crawe in New York. This species was named Carex heterostachya Torr. in Dewey, based on specimens collected on Drummond Island by Douglass Houghton in 1839 and Dennis Cooley in Macomb Co., but this name was a later homonym of the Asian Carex heterostachya Bunge.