This interesting shrub species I do see occasionally along or a little into the forest of southeast Pennsylvania. It is native to southeast Ontario & a tiny bit of far southern Quebec down into northern Georgia to central Alabama into eastern Oklahoma, Kansas, & Nebraska up into southern Minnesota, through southern Wisconsin & Michigan, often found near watercourses and bodies of water, but can grow uphill in deep rich woods or on slopes. It grows in sort of wet to well-drained soils with a pH range of 6 to 8. It grows at a medium rate of about 1.5 feet/year. It can grow in full sun, but tends to grow in part-shade and can grow in full fairly deep shade. Its trifoliate compound leaves that are arranged oppositely on the twigs turn a green-yellow to a pale lemon yellow in the fall. It bears about 3/8" long small flowers that are greenish-white to creamy white in May with the leaves. The fruit is a 3-lobed papery inflated bladder-like capsule about 1.5 to 3 inches long, profusely produced, that begin as a creamy color in August and darken to brown in the fall and persist through December. It has shallow, fibrous roots and is easy to transplant and grow. I find it to be a most interesting upright, arching large shrub. It is sold by some native plant nurseries. It is a similar shrub to the Hoptree Wafer-Ash Ptelea trifoliata) and a little less so to the Common Buttonball (Cephalanthus occidentalis); with all three being able to blend well together.

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