This tall rhizomatous plant occurs mostly in southern to midwestern prairies from e. Tex.and La. to Iowa and Wisc. (K). It may also be adventive further east (W). During recent decades, the species has become widely used in wildflower plantings across much of Ky., and it generally persists well through dry summers. But as a native plant, it is a rare remnant of more western "barrens" that used to exist on the Mississippian Embayment and on adjacent gravelly or cherty hills. There is also an 1837 coll. by C.W. Short from "Prairies of Illinois" (USCH).