It is a plant of tall, lightly grazed or infrequently mown grassland and coastal meadows in Europe and neighbouring parts of Asia and North Africa.

The peduncles of the secondary umbels (umbellules) are longer than the rays and also thicken after flowering, producing fruiting heads that are distinctively flat-topped.

[2][4] Unlike other species in the genus, Oenanthe pimpinelloides has ovoid to globose root tubers (‘potatoes’) that are situated some distance from the base of the stem.

Narrow-leaved water-dropwort may also have tubers of this shape (the only other species displaying such a character), but in contrast to O. pimpinelloides, these are held close to the base of the plant.

[5] However, on the grounds of conservation and wildlife law, the plant should not be uprooted to examine this character for identification purposes; different morphological features and habitat context should be looked at instead.

[7][8] The scientific name for corky-fruited water-dropwort was coined by Peter Artedi, who developed the modern binomial classification system, and defined the species on the basis of its involucral characters.

[20] Under the European Nature Information classification system EUNIS it is considered a characteristic species of "Atlantic false oat-grass meadows" (E2.211), which are restricted to the southern parts of the British Isles and western France.

[22] False oat-grass meadows are characteristic of southern English counties such as Somerset and Hampshire, although this community is now more often found on road verges and field margins.

[10][23] A different, but analogous, habitat for it is the EUNIS "Mediterranean tall humid grasslands" (E3.1), which are widespread throughout southern Europe as far east as the Black Sea.

The remaining two species are Lepidoptera: Depressaria daucella caterpillars feed among the flowerheads, while Agonopterix yeatiana larvae roll the leaves and shoots.

[26] O. pimpinelloides can be a noxious weed in New Zealand on account of its vigorous, persistent growth where no natural enemies occur, potentially outcompeting native eucalypts.

[28] The centre of the world distribution of corky-fruited water-dropwort (Œnanthe faux boucage) is in France, where it is most common in the south-west, and overall is classified as "Least Concern".

[31] The following year, about a dozen plants were found growing in a naturalized state on a lawn around a small pond at the British Antarctic Headquarters at High Cross, Cambridge.