This high-climbing annual is widespread across northern and western states, but rare to absent in the southeast (PL, W). It has often been cultivated "for arbors and freely escapes" (F, Cr), but this practice has probably dwindled in modern horticulture. In addition to several old records from Ky., there is a 1985 coll. of P. Dalton Haragan from MARS (KY-Agr.) on a river bottom. A coll. by KSNPC from MCLE ca. 1980 was initially misidentified as Cayaponia quinquefolia (M).