As a spring ephemeral, it is dormant during the summer dry season. The source addresses its dependence on moisture rather than reporting on drought tolerance directly.

The corm and roots are deeply buried, from 8 to 25 cm below ground. While deep soils are preferred, it also grows in bedrock cracks and shallow soils.

Depending on location, it may flower April to July and generally dies back in early summer. Seeds ripen in late spring to summer. In B.C., it fruits from May to June at low elevations and from July to August at high elevations.

It is more common in open than in closed forests and it may colonize disturbed sites. However, the source does not explicitly state its shade tolerance.

It is most common on long-open sites such as meadows and avalanche chutes.

It sprouts from the corm after top-kill and tends to survive fires of all severities because of its deep corms.

The review gives no information on the effect of fire on the seeds, and no heat- or smoke-cued germination is described.

Several studies reported yellow avalanche-lily presence on new burns. A fireweed-yellow avalanche-lily community formed in the Mount St. Helens blast zone within 3 years of the eruption.

Excluding fire could allow tree encroachment that reduces open conditions. However, many plant communities where yellow avalanche-lily occurs (e.g., subalpine and alpine meadows) rarely burn, so excluding fire would likely have a minor effect.

First Nations peoples traditionally burned meadows and woodlands every few years to promote its growth and production.

For example, ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir forests historically experienced mostly frequent surface fires, while subalpine fir-spruce forests experienced mixed and stand-replacement fires at longer intervals. It is most abundant in meadows and aspen parklands, whose historical fire frequencies are less well characterized.

In ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir forests, yellow avalanche-lily occurs where historical fires were mostly frequent, low-severity surface fires. In subalpine fir-spruce forests, it occurs where fires were mixed- and stand-replacement severity. It is most abundant in meadows and aspen parklands, whose historical fire severity is less well characterized.

Ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir forests had frequent, low- to mixed-severity fire (group 1). Subalpine fir-spruce forests had long-interval, stand-replacement fire (group 5).