This is a somewhat poorly understood taxon, sometimes confused with hyssopifolia, hispida or others. It appears to have two centers of distribution: the southeastern Coastal Plain and Piedmont from Ga. to N.J.; and the midwest centered on Ill., Ind. and Ohio but with almost no records from Tenn., Ky., W.Va. and Penn. (Sm, F, K, W). There are at least two colls. of C.W. Short from MEAD (GH, PH), labelled at GH just: "Stachys... ? No. 1. Meade Co. Ky." [this is an isotype of S. hyssopifolia var. ambigua]. Short et al. (1833) listed "Stachys aspera" for Ky., and it became included for Ky. in Gray's Manual (Torrey & Gray 1838-1843, Gray 1864, etc.). Pr listed "Stachys aspera" for WARR, but no coll. has been located. However, it was discovered during 2020 in BULL (JC for APSC), within a disturbed flatwoods remnant where Isoestes melanopoda and Poa wolfii had been collected by MM in 1988.