The larvae feed on various species in the sunflower family including Erigeron and Solidago species.
Erigeron species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Bucculatrix angustata, Coleophora squamosella (which feeds exclusively on E. acris), Schinia intermontana, Schinia obscurata (both of which also feed exclusively on Erigeron), Schinia sexata (which feeds exclusively on E. glabellus) and Schinia villosa.
In antiquity, an effective emetic based on white hellebore and a bitter oval seed (which Hahneman believed was the seed of Erigeron or Senecio) was mixed by the physicians of Antikyra, a city of Phokis in Greece.
Plant species occurring with this cinquefoil in multiple habitat types include prairie junegrass (Koeleria macrantha), elk sedge (Carex geyeri), western yarrow (Achillea millefolium), silvery lupine (Lupinus argenteus), common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), and beautiful fleabane (Erigeron formosissimus).