Wet prairies, marshy areas, moist sites along ponds, streams and ditches. Many of the ditches along gravel side roads in the Missouri River floodplain still contain significant populations of Prairie Cordgrass. At Fontenelle Forest there are several scattered clumps of Prairie Cordgrass in the floodplain prairie restoration. One small, easily accessible clump lies next to Hidden Lake Trail where it runs next to the prairie east of the blind. The prairie transplant in front of the Carl Jonas Interpretative Center at Neale Woods contains a sizable colony of Prairie Cordgrass and there are a few plants along lower Gifford Trail in the Jonas Prairie Restoration.

Other prairie species including Buffalo grass (Buchloe dactyloides) and Blue Grama (Bouteloua gracilis) have comb-like, one-sided flower clusters, but individual clusters are widely separated and not configured in a dense, branching panicle like that of Prairie Cordgrass. They, also, are shorter (less than 3 feet tall) and occupy drier upland sites.

Cordgrass, a dominant plant in moister portions of the tallgrass prairie, was used by Native Americans who thatched the wooden framework of their lodges before covering them with earth. The sharp leaf margins can cut exposed skin, hence the common name ripgut Its preference for moister sites has prompted other common names like Sloughgrass and Tall Marshgrass.