This is widespread in eastern North America, but rare to absent on the southeastern Coastal Plain. Ga noted: "growing in rich woods and sometimes in partially cleared woodland pasture" (see also Cimicifuga racemosa and Podophyllum peltatum). The widespread northern (circumboreal) species, A. rubra (Ait.) Willd. has been reported from Ky. by Hussey (1876; coll. at Purdue Univ.) and others in the 19th Century (M), but apparently based only on misinterpreted pachypoda. A. rubra has also been reported from nearby counties in s. Ill. (K, ML but not clearly verified) and in sw. Ohio (with Greene Co. verified by D. Boone, pers. comm.) That species is remarkably absent from the central and southern Appalachians (FNA 3, W). Without fruits, rubra is easily confused with pachypoda, differing as follows (W): fruiting pedicels slender, 0.4-0.7 mm in diameter (versus thicker, 1-2 mm); fruit red or rarely white (versus white or rarely red); stigma narrower than ovary in flower (versus wider); leaflets usually pubescent across the lower surface (versus usually glabrous).