They're native to my woods and they also grow in full sun here.

I ordered and planted one in my garden in part shade/sun 5 or 6 years ago, and it never grew an inch, just died a slow death. I ordered and planted one last winter, planted it in total shade in a low, usually wet spot, and I added chicken manure to the planting mix. It grew pretty rapidly, all went well, until we had a dry spell in the summer, and I forgot to water it - it died back on the top. I found two spicebush swallowtail caterpillars on it before it died back - sassafras is the normal host plant for spicebush swallowtails here. It apparently needs CONSTANT moisture, and in our area, it does better in shade. I hope mine comes back from the root this spring.
Books say that it's native to Mississippi and Alabama, but I've never seen it here, so I'd like to see a county by county range map. The only people that ever mention it growing wild in their area are people in the Virginia, West Virginia area.
There are several other linderas that are native to our area, but they're on the endangered species list. Of these, l. melissaefolium is the only one I know of that's available to buy - Woodlander's in Aiken, SC [across the river from Augusta, GA] sells it, but since it's on the endangered list, they can't ship it across state lines. I thought that eventually when I visit my sister in Augusta, I'd go there and pick some up - they only sell their plants from October to the end of March. I got SO down in my back, though, for SO long, from sitting in the car for so long after we made that long trip to Tampa to visit my daughter, I'm not sure I ever want to travel that far again. If you happen to be going that way, Alabama, and want to pick both of us up a few, I'd pay you for the plants and the 'shipping and handling'! :)
To get back to l. benzoin, if I ever plant any more of them, I'll plant them in the bottom of the hollow in the deepest shade and boggiest spot I can find with plenty of chicken manure added to increase both the fertility and the ph of my acid soil - in my book Native Shrubs and Woody Vines of the Southeast by Foote&Jones, it says, "It grows best on neutral or alkaline soils, so the addition of dolomitic lime to acid soils may be beneficial." I'm thinking maybe they only grow naturally in our states on the neutral soils here, which are rare, except in the Delta. If the fruit is half way as popular with birds as sassafras fruit is, then it's really a good wildlife plant, being a host to spicebush swallowtails and probably used by birds for nesting, since it appears to have a twiggy shape - I don't know, mine never get big enough for me to know for sure.
Sherry

I'm in Western NY State and I have seen them do well in both full sun and full shade but I'd suspect that you are right in that they would prefer shade in Alabama. I think they would fry in the hotter sun you get.

The spicebush is quite pretty and I added a few of my own over the last couple of years. I think you'll be happy with them.

FataMorgana

Hmm, I may grow them in containers this year to get a feel of how well they will do. It's a shame my air conditioner unit is in the sun, they probably would like the constant drip from the drain line during the summer.

Re the lime issue--soils here, where spicebush is native--are definitely acidic.

It grows like a weed in the swamps and lowlands in Elbridge, NY about 10 miles west of Syracuse. A couple years before my family bought our property there the land was pretty poorly logged, destroying almost all of the "meaningful" canopy, badly compacting the marshy soil, and exposing the area to much greater levels of sunlight. Since then, the Lindera benzoin has come in thicker than Honeysuckle and Buckthorn do on the abandoned fields around here. Having heard how difficult to grow this species can sometimes be, I found its presence a very pleasant surprise.

The soil in the swamp is sandy and slightly acid although the surrounding hills are limestone; the swamp sits at the bottom of a shallow valley that was probably a meltwater outwash area during the ice age- thus the sand. The most important factor that seems to govern its success here is constant soil moisture. Where that fades, so does the Lindera.

Principally an understory shrub here. I have noted a yellow/orange-fruited (xanthocarpic) specimen in the woods here; quite different from the typical red fruit, as depicted in sam_md's photo above.

I've planted about a dozen in the back yard in a partially shaded area. As sam noted, the fruits are relished by migrating birds. They also brighten up the landscape in the fall with bright yellow foliage.

Tiny yellow flowers that glisten in the morning sun. So far I've only noticed wasps and small flies on the flowers. Spicebush is a neat, adaptable shrub. Knowledgeable butterfly gardeners seek it out because it is a larval host for one of the swallowtails. date: 03-30-20

Yeah, I notice them here too, Sam. Quite common in understories -- you don't realize it until you see all of them blooming in early spring without all the interfering vegetation.