Houghton's goldenrod (Solidago houghtonii) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 4
Distribution
Global range
Houghton’s goldenrod is a Great Lakes endemic with most of its global range limited to the northern shores of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron (Figure 2). It is especially abundant in Michigan, occurring in continuous or semi-continuous populations along the Great Lakes shoreline. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1988). A disjunct population is found inland in Crawford and Kalkaska counties of Michigan, and another in Bergen Swamp, Genesee County, western New York (Michigan Natural Features Inventory, 1996). A recent manuscript in preparation on Solidago by Semple and Cook (in prep.) for the Flora North America project indicates that the specimens in New York state formerly thought to be of S. houghtonii have been misidentified; the species does not occur in the state.
Figure 2. Global distribution of Houghton’s goldenrod (Solidago houghtonii). Areas of occurrence determined from various publications (e.g., Morton 1979; Penskar 1997; Voss, 1996).
Canadian range
Houghton’s goldenrod has been found at Cabot Head on the Bruce Peninsula (as early as 1935), and at several sites on Manitoulin Island (Figure 3). Most of these are on the alvars of the La Cloche Peninsula and Great and Little La Cloche Islands, but there is also one population on Cockburn Island, over 100 km west of the La Cloche area (Ontario Natural Heritage Information Centre database). There are no known occurrences between Cockburn Island and La Cloche. The species has also been reported on the Wikwemikong First Nation at Tamarack Bay.
The La Cloche area encompasses about 200 km². The Cabot Head area would add about another 5 km² to the overall habitat, and Cockburn Island is estimated to have another 5 km². Wikwemikong might have another 5 to 10 km², giving an overall extent of occurrence of about 220 km².
Figure 3. Canadian distribution of Houghton’s goldenrod (Solidago houghtonii).
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