Before artificial dams and impoundments, this species (in its strict sense) was formerly widespread and locally abundant along several larger streams and rivers of east-central states. It is concentrated in or near central Appalachian regions (excluding aberrans), and it is unknown west of s. Ind. (W). In Ky. it is now common only along rocky banks of the upper Cumberland River system. Records from FRAN and GARR are historical references without known colls. based on notes of Andre Michaux and James Nourse in the late 1700s. Colls. of C.W. Short at NY simply state: "borders of large watercourses" (no date) and "river banks" (1835). His 1845 coll. at GH states: "banks of Ohio--near the grave of Harrison" [Hamilton Co., Ohio]; see also Braun (1916) and colls at CINC, MO and PH. There are also colls. from Indiana along the Ohio Rv. in Switzerland, Jefferson and Perry Cos. (Larisey 1940, D, K), but the only known plants in Ind. today are along the Blue Rv. in Harrison Co. (Homoya & Abrell 2005). A ca. 1900 coll. at GH by M.B. Flint at "Shelbyville" in SHEL may be from cultivation, but M suggests it was from the wild along Clear Creek. During the 1980s, M. Bender discovered a plant on banks of the Kentucky River in MERC, which is the only one known to remain in that watershed. A piece of this plant was taken for cultivation by JC; it flowered about two weeks later than plants from the Cumberland River drainage, grown side by side (peaking about mid-Jun versus late May). Elsewhere in the Bluegrass region, it is currently known only along banks of the Little Miami Rv. This may be the only wild population remaining in Ohio, according to their Natural Heritage Program (ohiodnr.gov; with more thorough map than K). Further exploration and collection is needed to propagate the disjunct remnants of this showy species' populations in the central and upper Ohio watershed. Like other species of Baptisia, australis is generally toxic for mammalian herbivores, due to quinolizidine alkaloids, especially cytisine (Cranmer & Turner 1967, Anderson et al. 2015). However, if trampled or similarly damaged, plants do not generally recover before the subsequent spring.