Wet sandy shores of Lake Superior and inland lakes; margins of pools in rock crevices near Lake Superior; in acidic, sterile soils. The Kent Co. collection mapped in Michigan Flora (E. J. Cole in 1897) is an immature specimen of C. emoryi and the Oakland Co. record (meadow at Marl Lake, O. A. Farwell 4933, BLH) is correctly determined but, despite no obvious red flags for erroreous data, must surely be the result of an accidental mixup, given the completely inappropriate habitat and geography, and therefore not mapped.

This is a short, densely tufted species, lacking any reddish-brown color to the basal sheaths, making it easily recognized in the field.