This widespread species (or species-complex) has been reported from several counties and most regions of Ky. (K, W). However, there has been much misidentifcation of depauperate obovatus or anonyma as paupercula. Typical paupercula is applied here only to plants on damp soils of sandstone cobble bars along the Cumberland Rv. (especially at mouth of Bunches Cr. in WHIT) and its Big South Fk. (especially at Big Shoals in MCRE). However, circumscriptions of this widespread northern species and its segregates remain somewhat tentative, even after recent revision of Mahoney & Kowal (2008) and Kowal & Mahoney (2016); see also notes under var. pseudotomentosa. More robust plants with pinnatifid cauline leaves have been named P. crawfordii (Britt.) Mahoney & Kowal, which occurs mostly in seeps on the Atlantic Coastal Plain but has also been recently found in south-central Tenn. (W; M. Brock, pers. comm.). The remarkable population of paupercula at mouth of Bunches Cr. covers about 400 sq. m, codominant with Physostegia virginiana and Pancum virgatum on tightly bound sand and cobbles; Carex emoryi and Spartina pectinata occur at slightly lower levels; for complete list see Palmer-Ball et al. (1988).