Rounded Global Status Rank: G3 - Vulnerable
Reasons: This species occurs in three isolated geographic regions: northeastern Iowa/southwestern Wisconsin, northeastern Ohio, and the Catskill Mountains of New York. The largest concentrations are in Iowa and Wisconsin. Some of the populations in this region are quite large (one population in Iowa has about 10,000 individuals). There are eleven extant occurrences in New York and only two or three in Ohio.
It is believed that this species is a glacial relict, that as the glaciers retreated during the Pleistocene, this species only survived in a microhabitat that mimiced its habitat during this cooler era, but during the glaciated time that this species was more common. The populations of this species are geographically isolated from one another and the distribution of this species is limited by its highly specific microclimate needs, which currently are near algific talus slopes in which cold air spills out from caves with ice as a substrate (Cole and Kuchenreuther 2001).
The species is slow-growing, very sensitive to disturbance, and is currently significantly threatened by various disturbances including dams, reservoirs, road/powerline construction and maintenance, quarrying and logging operations. The lack of protected occurrences in some areas is of concern.
Finally, genetic studies have revealed that this species is not distinguishable from the western species A. columbianum, suggesting that these two species should be considered one (Cole and Kuchenreuther 2001). With this said, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service does not believe that enough population data were collected to lump this species into the more western A. columbianum (Mabry et al. 2009).
Environmental Specificity: Very narrow. Specialist or community with key requirements scarce.
Comments: This Aconitum species inhabits a very specific habitat, known as agific talus slopes. This habitat type is characterized by carbonate talus slopes where cold air spills out from ice filled caves. These caves are thermally buffered by the surrounding slopes. The soil temperature rarely goes above 15C in the summer. The surrounding forest is deciduous and the caves are usually situated on north-facing slopes (Nekola 1999).