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This has to be one of the most desirable wildflowers in Texas and and the southern United States, Mexico and the Caribbean and possible as far north as Montana. I have found it growing in Colorado New Mexico, Oklahoma. There are two varieties exaltatum which is the western variety and grandiflorum which grows everywhere else. I have found this plant to be quite impossible to grow as a perennial. The plants we get in the nursery are usually cultivars that where developed in Japan starting in the 30s. These cultivars come in many shades and colors and where developed for the cut flower market. The prairie gentian as it is also known usually grows in damp drainage areas. These areas can dry out in the summer but they are wet in the growing season.