This is widespread in wetlands of southeastern states, but generally absent from cooler regions. In Ky. it is rare to absent in the Bluegrass, Knobs and northern Appalachian Plateau (K, W); see also R. Reed (1960)..The genus Pluchea is known to produce diverse compounds with physiological effects, especially thiophenes, terpenes, quinic acids, sterols, lignans, phenolics and flavonoids (e.g. Ibrahim et al. 2022). The strong smell presumably repels general consumption by mammals. However, there has been little definitive research on the chemistry of camphorata.