Upland oak forests; moist open ground; and shady borders of ponds, marshes, and swamps.

The combination of glabrous, beakless perigynia, gynecandrous terminal spikes, and pubescent sheaths and foliage is unique to this species.

A more southern species, Carex caroliniana, occurs close to Michigan in northern Indiana and also northeastern Ohio. It would key to C. hirsutella, but differs in being much less pubescent; with short pubescence on the sheaths (sometimes only near the sheath apex) and leaf blades often glabrous or only sparsely pubescent near the sheath apex, and in having the perigynia globose rather than distinctly flattened.