Winterberry grows wild from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia west to Ontario and Minnesota and south to the Gulf states, mostly in swamps, wet thickets and pond edges, though it also turns up on sandy ground. Its berries hang on the branches long after other fruit is gone, and birds such as American robins eat them in late winter and early spring. It is a larval host for Henry's elfin butterfly.
Linnaeus first placed the species in the genus Prinos, and Asa Gray moved it to Ilex, the holly genus; that history is recorded in its authority, (L.) A. Gray. Older names include black alder, fever bush and Michigan holly; fever bush comes from Indigenous medicinal use of the plant. The cut berried branches are widely used in winter decorations.