Pistillate scales 2.5-4.1 × 1.2-1.6(-2) mm, apex usually acuminate, sometimes awned, equaling or shorter than perigynia. Perigynia 2.8-3.8 × 1.2-2.6 mm; beak 0.5-2.3 mm, apical teeth 0.1-0.3 mm. 2n = 28.

Fruiting late Apr-late Jun. Poor to rich, well-drained soils of dry to moist woods and clearings, in partial shade of deciduous and mixed deciduous-coniferous forests, crevices and ledges of bluffs, slopes; 50-1000 m; N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.S., Ont., Que.; Ark., Conn., Del., Ill., Ind., Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Pa., R.I., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.

Common in dry woods of all types, particularly on rocky slopes. It is one of the earliest sedges to flower and fruit. Deam no. 33881 (Gray Herbarium) is abnormal in having the leaf sheaths prolonged laterally and ventrally, forming auricles reaching almost to the summit of the ligule. Typically the leaf sheaths are deeply concave at the mouth.