This annual or biennial is largely restricted to the southeastern Coastal Plain, from Va. to Ala., and the adjacent Piedmont, where it grows in "longleaf pine sandhills, moist forests, pocosin ecotones, seepages" (W). A remarkable small disjunct population has been reported in 2020 by T. Littlefield (NP) from eastern PULA; images have been verified, but a coll. is not yet available. The species is close to angularis but differs as follows (W): corolla lobes white or creamy white (versus pink or rarely white); pedicels above the uppermost bracts or branches mostly 1-2 mm long (versus 4-6 mm); mid-stem leaves lanceolate (versus ovate).