Treatment is provisional, given anticipated revision; see W. In its broad sense, this is a variable species that is widespread and somewhat weedy on sandy soils across southeastern states, from New Mexico to Massachusetts (ssp. punctata) plus the upper midwest and Great Lakes region (ssp. villicaulis Pennell), but it is uncommon to absent in Appalachian regions and most of the Ohio Rv. watershed (Cr, K,). A third segregate, ssp. arkansana McClintock & Epling, occurs more locally across southeastern states, mostly in or near the Ozarks but also disjunct in the Blue Ridge and Piedmont; see W for key. There are only two verified wild colls. of punctata (sensu lato) from Ky., both by R. Athey on 18 Aug 1971: (1) LIVI, #1320 (MUR), "in sight of the Clark Memorial Bridge on US 60E, sandy fields joining the Tennessee River oxbow"; (2) MCRA, #1445 (EKY), "sandy fields near the mouth of the Tennessee Rv." The LIVI coll. was annotated by E.W. Scora as typical punctata, but it appears to be villicaulis. In addition, there is a 1987 coll. at APSC from a "r..o.w. plot" along Interstate 64 in SHEL, but presumably planted. McClintock & Epling (1942) also reported ssp. villicaulis from Ky., and W has mapped that taxon in the Appalachian region of Ky., but the sources for those records are not yet documented. A 1936 coll. of punctata at MDKY that is labeled as from ROWA has been doubted, given other problematic labels by K. Carr (Campbell et al. 1992).