Schoenoplectus pungens var. pungens

Freshwater to oligohaline tidal marshes, high-energy intertidal shores, tidal swamps, interdune swales and ponds, calcareous fens and spring marshes, wet meadows, and rocky or gravelly river shores and bars; also in rare montane (Ridge and Valley) salt marshes developed in seasonally flooded basins over Mississipian-age salt deposits at Saltville, Smyth County. Frequent to locally common in the maritime and estuarine zones of the coastal Plain; infrequent but widely distributed elsewhere.