A temperate species, it is widely distributed in North America, where it grows on the ground on road sides, in pastures, grassy areas, and open woods.

B. pila puffballs have been used by the Chippewa people of North America as a charm, and as an ethnoveterinary medicine for livestock farming in western Canada.

The species was described as new to science in 1873 by Miles Joseph Berkeley and Moses Ashley Curtis, from specimens collected in Wisconsin.

William Chambers Coker and John Nathaniel Couch called B. pila "the American representative of B. nigrescens in Europe", referring to their close resemblance.

Its surface texture, initially appearing as if covered with minute flakes of bran (furfuraceous), becomes marked with irregular, crooked lines (rivulose).

[9] Initially white and firm with tiny, irregularly shaped chambers (visible with a magnifying glass),[6] the gleba later becomes greenish and then brown and powdery as the spores mature.

[13] Characteristics typically used to identify Bovista pila in the field include its relatively small size, the metallic lustre of the endoperidium, and the presence of rhizomorphs.

[14] B. plumbea is similar in appearance, but can be distinguished by its typically smaller fruit body and the blue-gray color of its inner coat.

[18] Edible when the interior gleba is still firm and white,[7] Bovista pila puffballs have a mild taste and odor.

[25] In British Columbia, Canada, it is used by livestock farmers who are not allowed to use conventional drugs under certified organic programs.

The spore mass of the puffball is applied to bleeding hoof trimming 'nicks', and then wrapped with breathable first-aid tape.