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 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 been verified from nearby counties in s. Ill. (ML) and sw. Ohio, but it is absent from the central and southern Appalachians (FNA 3, W).