This largely midwestern species occurs only in scattered remnants of native grassland, and has become rare across much of its range. In Ky. most records date from before 1950, and they are clustered in or near the western karst plains, especially near Mammoth Cave and in other land between the karst plain and the Shawnee Hills. Despite much searching, the only well-documented extant population is in HARD (KY), where management with fire has allowed recovery in a more natural area. G. puberulenta has a curious, tortuous nomenclatural history in Ky. and elsewhere. It became widely known as G. puberula Michx. after Gray's (1864) early floras, but Pringle (1966, 1967) considered that Michaux’s (1803) type (from s. Ill.) is really an unusual puberulent coll. of saponaria, and he established the current name instead. Hybrids between these two species are rare, but Pringle found that hybrids of puberulenta and andrewsii can resemble puberulenta. C.S. Rafinesque probably included puberulenta in his colls., but none of his epithets became recognized for species of Gentiana. It is likely that Raf. was referring to this species in one of two names: "shortiana... common in the glades of Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, &c."; and his "torreyana... In the glades with the foregoing..." (Merrill 1949, and citations). Those two taxa were almost the only species that Rafinesque named in honor of Short or Torrey! C.W. Short himself provided the earliest clear record of puberulenta from Ky., under the misapplied name G. rubricaulis Schwein., with a coll. from "Barrens of Ky. Sept. 20th 1835 near Mammoth Cave" (NCU, PH; see also, Short & Peter 1835).