This alien is widely scattered on acid soils across eastern North America, but strongly concentrated in Appalachian regions and New England. It is also common in the Pacific northwest. In Ky. it was first noted by Short (1840): "becoming gradually naturalized in our meadows." A. odoratum and A. aristatum include diploids (2n = 10) and tetraploids, but only tetraploids are known in North America (FNA 24). The related species, A. hirtum (Schrank.) Y. Schouten & Veldkamp, is a circumboreal polyploid (2n = 56). That species has been erroneously reported from Ky. by M, K and others, based on a misidentified coll. of Poa cuspidata at EKY.