Amur corktree (Phellodendron amurense Rupr.) is listed as a second-class protected species in national key protected plant lists. They are commonly scattered in broad-leaved forest in small populations. In recent years, a series of protective measures have been taken at the national or local government level, and man-made damage to the species has been greatly reduced. However, the population of Amur cork has not increased significantly from these measures. In this paper, potential distribution areas for Amur corktree in China were analyzed from an ecological point of view, and their suitabilities were evaluated to provide technical support for in situ and ex situ conservation of the wild Amur corktree population. According to the field investigation and literature review, which included accurate geographic information, we obtained 69 distribution points of Amur corktree. Simultaneously, three topographic variables (alt, slo, asp), five soil variables (grav, pH, radi, rub, oc), and 19 bioclimatic variables (bio1-bio19) were downloaded from the world climate database (world-clim). We tested the correlations between these environmental factors by multiple collinearity analysis, and some environmental factors with high correlations were excluded, The final results include six climatic variables (bio1, bio3, bio4, bio12, bio15, and prec1), three topographic variables (alt, ASP, SLO), and five soil variables (grav, pH, radi, rub, oc) for a total of 14 environmental factors as environmental variables, and we predicted the potential distribution areas of Amur corktree in China. A suitable grade for each area was determined by using the maximum entropy model (MaxEnt) and GIS; meanwhile, we analyzed the key factors that influence the distribution and growth of the Amur corktree, and the appropriate ranges of these factors. 1)The potential suitable distribution areas of Amur corktree in China are mainly concentrated in the northeastern regions and most areas of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei, as well as in northern Henan, and southeastern Inner Mongolia. The total suitable distribution area for Amur corktree is 11.71 million km², accounting for 12.27% of the total area of the country, and among this area, the highly suitable area was 189400 km², accounting for 1.97% of the total area of the country. These highly suitable areas were situated in the eastern part of Heilongjiang Province, most parts of Jilin Province, the southeastern part of Liaoning Province, and most areas of Beijing. 2) Standard deviation of seasonal variation in temperature (35.7%), annual precipitation (28%), slope (6.5%), mean annual temperature (6.7%), and organic carbon content (5.8%) were the five main environmental factors influencing the distribution of the Amur corktree, and the total rate of contribution was 82.7%. A seasonal variation in temperature standard deviation in the range of 14000-16000, an average annual rainfall in the range of 600-800 mm, slope in the range of 2°-8°, average annual temperature in the range of 1-7℃, and a soil organic carbon content in the range of 25-65 g/kg are the most suitable ranges for Amur corktree distribution. The distribution of wild Amur corktree in China is much less than its potential distribution. Shandong, Shanxi, and Henan Provinces and Inner Mongolia are available regions for Amur corktree distribution where they are not currently widely distributed. The analysis of the key factors influencing the distribution and growth of Amur corktree showed that the higher the standard deviation of seasonal variation in temperature (14000-16000), the higher the degree for Amur corktree growth; an average annual precipitation of 700 mm was the most suitable precipitation for Amur corktree growth, which suggested that Amur corktree has a moderate requirement for water; a slope of 2-8° was the most suitable, which showed that the Amur corktrees are usually distributed on a gentle slope; and an average annual temperature of 4℃ and soil organic carbon content of 50 g/kg were also the most suitable variables for Amur corktree growth.