Colonies prefer areas where the food plants grow among tussocky vegetation. The stream valleys had many tussocky bogs. The monoecious and rhizomatous perennial sedge has a tangled, tussocky habit. It mostly inhabits rough, tussocky grassland, woods and cropped land. Tussocky native grasses provide a dense ground cover for much of the year. The terrain comprises mostly short, tussocky grass and is marshy in places. These are more rounded and undulating, clad in moorland and rough, tussocky grassland.