Phoebe zhennan is an endemic valuable timber tree to China and was listed as one of the national second-class important protected plants. In the study, we investigated the wild resource of P.zhennan, distinguished its confused species and estimated its potential distribution. The results showed that P.zhennan had a sporadic distribution in the areas of Sichuan Basin and Northern Guizhou. Due to deforestation and habitat destruction, P.zhenann mostly shrinked back to fengshui forests with low regeneration, rarely remained in natural forests and some scattered in bamboo forests, few natural regenerating populations were found during our investigation. Two confused species, Lindera megaphylla and Phoebe hui, were distinguished from P.zhennan with the evidence from morphology and DNA barcoding. The results of potential distribution estimation showed that P.zhennan might distribute in Sichuan Basin and Northern Guizhou, but the distribution in Northern Guizhou was fragmentizing. In the future, with global warming, habitat fragmentation of P.zhennan will be intensified and the distribution would tend to move northward with shrinking. Protection countermeasures and suggestions of P.zhennan are discussed.