This species occurs in southeastern states east of the Mississippi Rv. It is clearly native in the upper Cumberland Rv. watershed, at least in MCRE and WHIT; there may also be an early coll. suggesting native status in BELL or HARL (Kearney 1893). Var. glaucus is locally common along the Big South Fork and tributaries (mostly in MCRE). Reports from Ky. of the more pubescent var. floridus are erroneous or based just on cultivated plants (M); these include some apparent local escapes in MADI (EK). Disjunct plants (cf. var. glaucus) in KNOT, POWE, ROWA, MCRA and elsewhere have probably escaped or persisted after cultivation. These records are mapped as open dots; see also, Clark & Weckman (2008). The species appears to have spread into Illinois (Ebinger & McClain 1997) and Missouri (Y) within recent decades; see also K. There has been some culinary and medicinal use of this plant, but details are somewhat obscure; bark, with a camphorous smell, has been used in similar ways to cinnamon (pfaf,org). However, plants also produce unusual quinoline alkaloids (with "calycanthine") that are similar to strychnine and generally considered highly toxic for mammals, especially in seeds (Sterns 1888, Manske 1965; FNA 3). Seed dispersal from the unusual pyriform fruits of Calycanthus remains somewhat mysterious; the western C. occidentalis Hook. & Am. can be dispersed by yellow-jackets (Burge & Beck 2019). In cultivated plants of floridus in FAYE, V. Holmberg (pers. comm.) has consistently observed small ants within overwintered fruits.