This tall colonial glaucous-leaved sedge occurs locally in base-rich swamps from southeastern states to the southern Great Lakes region, but it is concentrated in the Mississippi Valley and Gulf Coastal Plain, and it is almost absent from Appalachian regions (K). In Ky. hyalinolepis usually grows in thin woods that have much green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica var. subintegerrima), with relatively persistent and undisturbed wet conditions.