Fringed sedge grows in swamps, bogs, shorelines, floodplain forests and wet ditches across central and eastern Canada and the central and eastern United States. It is an obligate wetland species, meaning it almost always grows in wet places. It is native in Quebec and gives its name to a group of closely related sedges, the Carex crinita complex.
The species was described by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. The epithet crinita refers to the long-awned scales of the female spikes. Three varieties are currently accepted.