This occurs on damp acid soils in much of eastern North America, but it is rare to absent on the southeastern Coastal Plain (where replaced by D. sericocarpoides Small). In Ky. umbellata occurs mostly in Appalachian regions. Its scattered occurrences in western regions deserve further documentation. A recently discovered population in BULL (by JC near the Stachys aspera site) may be referable to var. pubens (Gray) Britt., which has been considered a distinct upper midwestern species by some authors: D. pubens (Gray) Rydb. That taxon has not been documented before in Ky.