This largely midwestern species is generally restricted to remnants of native grasslands, typically on damper sites than puberulenta (perhaps with more clay and less sand). Hybrids with puberulenta have occasionally been found in other states (Pringle 1967). For over a century, there has been controversy about the nomenclatural validity of alba versus flavida as the epithet, but this may be resolved (Wilbur 1988, W). In Ky. flavida is endangered, with only two sizeable populations known: 100+ in s. MADI and 1000+ along a right-of-way in n. FRAN; T. Littlefield, pers. comm.). The MADI habitat is generally not exceptional: a brushy low meadow and roadside with frequent Toxicodendron, Amphicarpaea, Microstegium, Desmodium paniculatum, Parthenocissus, Festuca arundinacea, Thalictrum revolutum, Fragaria, Lonicera japonica, Chamaecrista fasciculata, Solidago altissima and Daucus. But there are small amounts of other conservative grassland species, including Astranthium integrifolium, Echinace purpurea, Eryngium yuccifolium, Gentianella quinquefolia, Lithospermum canescens Physostegia praemorsa and Ratibida pinnata (Adams & Thompson 2017). Most records of G. alba during recent decades come from the eastern Knobs and Blue Licks area; the species is also known from adjacent s. Ohio (K). But more verification is needed in most cases, with photos or colls. (including several reports to M and NP); G. villosa has sometimes been misidentified as alba. Before B's coll. in the 1930s from "prairie patches" of Clack Mt. in ROWA, the only record from Ky. was in the unverifiable list of McMurtrie (1819). There is no evidence that Short et al. (1833-40) ever found this species. The southern limit of this species needs clarification. Records of alba that are mapped by NP (see also K) from w. Ky. in BUTL, LOGA and WARR remain dubious. There are no known colls. from the broadly defined "Big Barrens" region of Ky. and Tenn. However, flavida is well-known from a few counties along the Ohio Rv. in s. Ind. (D) and s. Ill. (ML).