By the 1830s, the porcelain trade brought regular contact between Asia and the United States, which was probably how the Empress spread to this continent. In the days before packing "peanuts" and plastic sheets of air bubbles, Empress seedpods served as packing material for shipments of delicate porcelain to the United States. When the pods were discarded, the trees sprouted throughout the East, especially along the banks of the Hudson, Schuylkill, and Brandywine Rivers. These introduced trees were popular exotics in their early years and were written about in horticultural and botanical magazines of the time.

Biologist Peter Beckjord believes that, in the United States and in developing countries where land has been damaged by poor agricultural and industrial practices, Empress Splendor™ trees may be an ideal solution for land reclamation. Because the Empress Splendor™ regenerates quickly from roots, it is able to survive fires (perhaps one of the reasons it was associated with the phoenix) and thrive in marginal conditions. And, according to Beckjord, the species paves the way for, rather than competes with, successive growth of other trees