Another Missouri plant that is closely related to pondberry is the common spicebush. Pondberry is very similar and difficult to distinguish from spicebush. Flora of Missouri. Iowa State Press. Habitat and Distribution Pondberry occurs in poorly drained, swampy depressions associated with small sand dunes.
Overstory vegetation is typically a closed canopy of mature bottomland hardwoods.
Pondberry grows on these low level areas and is not found on the higher dunes. Pondberry competes poorly with shade-intolerant plants and is most often found in shaded areas. It does not do well during severe drought and dies back after hard winters. In Missouri, pondberry is found only in Ripley County of the Missouri Lowlands Region. This population is believed to be the northern remnant of a much larger population that once occurred in the Mississippi lowlands of southern Missouri and northern Arkansas.