It typically occurs in inland habitats, unlike A. egedii, which is a salt-tolerant coastal salt marsh plant.

According to Pyotr Kozlov, who traveled in the Kham region in 1900–1901, Tibetans, who did not have any vegetables other than turnips, would often dig out roots of Argentina anserina (whose local name he gave as djüma), which could be easily dried and stored for later use.

[13] The mission of Sarat Chandra Das to Tibet in the late 19th century reported that the root of the plant, under a Tibetan name variously transcribed as toma, doma or droma, was served cooked in butter and sugar at the New Year's celebrations in the Tibetan capital Lhasa.

[14] The pre-Linnaean name anserina means "of the goose" (Anser), either because the plant was used to feed them or because the leaves resembled the bird's footprints.

There is a legend that the Christ Child grew up and walked the roads of Palestine, and the yellow flowering plant of the dusty wayside with silvery fern-like leaves that lay flat on the ground has been called the Footsteps of Our Lord.

[15] Argentina anserina achenes are rather rare in Pliocene fossil floras of the East Europe but common in the Pleistocene.