The perigynium is launched outward when it comes into contact with an object and tissue at its base is compressed, which then acts as a spring when the pressure is released.

[10] Carex pauciflora has a circumboreal distribution, occurring in cool temperate and subarctic areas throughout the Northern Hemisphere.

[12] In Ukraine it is present in bogs and fens in the Carpathians[13] and in the Ovruch Raion of the Zhytomyr Oblast near the border with Belarus.

The bogs that Carex pauciflora inhabits in the Ukrainian Carpathians are drying out and being invaded by shrubs, and fens that the sedge also inhabits are being invaded by trees and shrubs such as Pinus mugo, Alnus alnobetula, Salix silesiaca, and Picea abies.

Manual removal of more competitive non-wetland plants has been suggested as a conservation measure.