Disturbed, young forests; first collected on Grassy Island in the Detroit River, Wayne Co. in 2007 by A. A. Reznicek. An occasionally grown Asian tree that is a very local escape from cultivation (see Ma & Brach, 2007).

A similar, less commonly cultivated Chinese tree, Tetradium daniellii (Benn.) T. G. Hartley, is known to escape in Ohio (Vincent, 2004), and may well be found in Michigan. It differs in the fruits being dehiscent follicles, rather than a fleshy drupe as in Phellodendron,  and having the winter buds not enclosed by the base of the petiole.