Eriocaulon decangulare is a wetland species that is rare in the North Carolina mountains. The mountain populations are disjunct from those in the Coastal Plain, where the species is more common. We investigated the habitat and plant associates of E. decangulare in three mountain wetlands during summer 2002. We centered 40, 0.25-m² quadrats around randomly selected E. decangulare plants (8–20 quadrats per wetland), and estimated the percent cover occupied by all species within the quadrat. We also measured photosynthetically active radiation in each quadrat and determined the soil pH at each site. For seven plant types, only the coverage of woody plants differed significantly among sites. Most of the woody plants occurred as seedlings, small sprouts, or trailing stems. Overall, E. decangulare appeared to favor open, acidic, sunny conditions with abundant Sphagnum mosses. We documented four other unique and uncommon wetland plant species occurring with E. decangulare, and recommend continued management of all three wetlands to suppress woody species and increase the sunlight available to smaller herbaceous plants.