[4][5] This species lives in constantly wet, calcareous flush-fens that are fed by tufa-depositing springs.

In the British Isles (Ireland and United Kingdom) it often lives in association with black bog-rush Schoenus nigricans and yellow sedge Carex viridula, in dense short grasses and sedges with little Sphagnum moss.

It occurs in the boreal, alpine, continental and Atlantic zones with a range extending from Ireland to Russia.

[7] It occurs in such scattered locations as on Beinn a' Ghlò in Eastern Scotland, in North Yorkshire, in Cumbria and in Corsydd Môn in Anglesey, where there is a large, low-altitude population in a calcareous fen.

[10] and it occurs in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine,[11] Sweden and Switzerland.