[2] The plant grows in moist marshes, forests and alongside bodies of water.

When the leaves die, they build on top of or around the living plant, making a "tussock".

[3] Widely distributed in and east of the Great Plains,[4] it is one of the most common wetland sedges in eastern North America.

[citation needed] When seeds land, they are eaten by birds such as dark-eyed junco, northern cardinal, wild turkey, and ducks such as mallard and wood duck.

[3] It is a larval host to the black dash, the dun skipper, and the eyed brown.