USA: Northern West Virginia, south through the mountains of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. Generally restricted to the Ridge and Valley Province and Southern Appalachians, with occasional populations in the Cumberland Mountains and in the eastern edge of the Cumberland Plateau in Ohio and Kentucky. Not known west of die Tennessee River Valley in Tennessee. Extending into the Upper Piedmont in North and South Carolina and as far soutii as Meriwether Co., Georgia. Collections from Tarrytown, New York that are R. calendulaceum have been suggested as native in the past (Barnhart, 1895). However, all of the collections are nearly a century old and this is well north of the range of the species. Most likely these were cultivated plants that had persisted.