This taxon occurs mostly on damp sites from the Ozark region, through the midwestern Till Plains, to the Alleghenies (Campbell & Seymour 2013). It has been much confused with chapmannii (which may intergrade), palustris and speciosa. The only possible wild records of sullivantii from Ky. are incomplete colls. (lacking basal parts) from BARR (H.A. Ahles #7559 at KY & MISSA; 22 Aug 1953; "woodland, Mammoth Cave Park National Forest") and CALL (R. Athey #2133 at APSC, MEM, MUR & NCU). However, during recent decades, a cultivar of sullivantii known as "Goldsturm" has become widely grown in flower-beds and it may locally escape. Also widely cultivated is R. deamii Blake (treated as a var. of fulgida in FNA 21), which is a closely related species with distinctive dense grayish pubescence, native to s. Ind., with virtually no confirmed records from other states; it occurs about 15 miles west of Louisville (JEFF) in Harrison Co., Ind. R. deamii has recently been much promoted for horticultural use, partly because it is taller and more tolerant of drought than sullivantii. As a group, chapmanii plus sullivantii plus deamii differ from palustris as follows: largest basal leaf blades with L/W mostly 1-2 (versus 1.5-4), truncate to subcordate (versus cuneate to truncate); drier leaves usually dark bluish-green (versus yellowish- or bluish-green), relatively thick, coarsely hirsute-hispid (versus glabrate to hirstue-hispid), the cauline ones crenate to dentate with teeth often projecting 3-4 mm (versus sunentire to serrate with teeth < 2 mm); basal stoloniferous offsets usually 5-10 cm long (versus < 5 cm); rays mostly 2-3 cm long (versus 1-2.5 cm); paleae ciliate to eciliate (versus somewhat ciliate on sides and apex, or just erose at apex).