Native and rare plants

Summary

Beaver Island’s most detailed held record of individual plant species is a 2024 landowner’s guide from the Michigan Natural Features Inventory (MNFI), which lists 158 native plants and profiles thirteen rare or declining plant species found on the island, each carrying a state or federal conservation status. Four of the thirteen grow in open dune, three in interdunal wetland, three in forest, one in an inland lake, and one — seaside crowfoot — is listed as extirpated. The strongest conservation status belongs to Michigan monkey-flower, found nowhere in the world outside Michigan and documented on the island’s northeast shoreline. Dwarf lake iris, Michigan’s state flower, has been documented on the island since at least 1989, when the Beaver Beacon first reported on it, predating the systematic 2024 guide by 35 years.

This theme keeps that species-level evidence distinct from the community-scale and industrial-history record carried elsewhere: the mapped forest and tree record in Forest types and tree history, wetland and hydrological mapping in Wetlands, inland waters, and hydrology, dune geomorphology in Geology and landforms, and non-native species in Invasive species and ecological stewardship. The guide’s own account is a compilation of prior observations rather than a fresh island-wide survey, and it is explicit about what it does not establish — population size, mapped occurrence boundaries, or current condition for any of the thirteen species.

Native plants and where the record comes from

The most detailed species-level account of Beaver Island’s flora held in this project is the 2024 Michigan Natural Features Inventory landowner’s guide, written for property owners rather than as a technical survey report. Its Appendix A (printed p. 47) reports that the island supports more than twelve natural-community (vegetation) types, nine ranked vulnerable in Michigan and four ranked vulnerable globally, alongside thirty rare or declining plant and animal species, thirteen of them plants carrying a federal or state threatened, endangered, or special-concern listing.

The guide’s own plant appendix lists 158 native species by common name, spanning wildflowers, ferns, shrubs, and aquatic plants rather than only the sixteen trees already catalogued in Forest types and tree history. Examples outside the tree list include bloodroot, trillium, Jack-in-the-pulpit, bunchberry, and several native orchids such as dragon’s-mouth and grass-pink, plus carnivorous species — flat-leaved and horned bladderwort — that are separate entries from the rare sundews and butterwort described below. This is a source-defined booklet list, not a comprehensive flora: an unlisted plant is not evidence of absence, and a listed one is not a site-specific occurrence record. The guide’s 31-entry invasive-plant list and the island’s documented control programs belong to Invasive species and ecological stewardship and are not repeated here.

Thirteen listed rare plants

The guide devotes an illustrated page to each of the thirteen rare plant species it lists for Beaver Island, giving natural-community association, NatureServe global and state rank, and — where known — specific locations on the island. Four occur in open dune habitat, three in interdunal wetland, three in forest, one in an inland lake, and one is recorded only as historically present.

Open dunes. Pitcher’s thistle (Cirsium pitcheri, federal and state threatened) is known worldwide only from Great Lakes shorelines; the guide lists it at Bonner’s Landing, Little Sand Bay, Cable’s Bay, Donegal Bay, French Bay, Iron Ore Bay, Lookout Point, McFadden’s Point, the Petritz Preserve, and Sand Bay (printed p. 28). Lake Huron tansy (Tanacetum bipinnatum, state special concern) occurs at a similar set of shoreline sites plus Cheyenne Point and McCauley’s Bay (p. 29). Clustered broomrape (Orobanche fasciculata, state threatened) is a chlorophyll-lacking parasite of wild wormwood, reported at Donegal Point, Iron Ore Bay, and McFadden’s Point (p. 30). Pumpelly’s brome (Bromus pumpellianus, state threatened) is a disjunct grass, isolated in Michigan from its main range in Alaska and northwestern Canada, historically documented at the Petritz Preserve, Bonner’s Bluff, and Donegal Bay (p. 31).

Interdunal wetland. Houghton’s goldenrod (Solidago houghtonii, federal and state threatened) is known worldwide only from the northern shores of Lakes Michigan and Huron; on Beaver Island it has been found only at Donegal Bay, where the guide describes it as appearing to be declining (p. 32). Butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris, state special concern), a small carnivorous plant with sticky insect-trapping leaves, has been found at Donegal Bay and Little Sand Bay (p. 33). English sundew (Drosera anglica, state special concern) has been found at Donegal Bay (p. 34); the guide distinguishes it from three more common Michigan sundews by leaf shape and hair pattern.

Forest. Dwarf lake iris (Iris lacustris, federal and state threatened) is Michigan’s state flower and is known worldwide only from the shores of northern Lakes Michigan and Huron. The guide reports several large populations on the island’s southern shores, as well as along road and trail sides (p. 35). Documentary evidence of the species on Beaver Island predates the 2024 guide by decades: the Beaver Beacon‘s August 1989 issue carried a natural-history item on dwarf lake iris in Michigan, the earliest held record of island interest in the plant (see The Beaver Beacon reports Dwarf Lake iris on Beaver Island, 1989). Ram’s-head lady-slipper (Cypripedium arietinum, state special concern), Michigan’s smallest lady-slipper orchid, has been reported at unspecified sites around the island that the guide keeps confidential because of the species’ sensitivity to disturbance (p. 36). Calypso orchid (Calypso bulbosa, state threatened) has been reported historically in wet coniferous woods near the Lake Michigan shoreline (p. 38).

One forest species carries the strongest conservation status in the whole list. Michigan monkey-flower (Mimulus michiganensis, federal and state endangered, globally critically imperiled at G1/S1) is, per the guide, the only plant species known to occur solely within Michigan. On Beaver Island it has been documented at Little Sand Bay and other sites along the northeast shoreline, growing in cold springs, seeps, and streams inside rich conifer swamp and shaded emergent marsh (p. 37). The guide notes that fertile seed has been documented at only one site in Michigan, in 1986 — a fact stated about the species statewide, not specifically about the Beaver Island population.

Inland water. American shore-grass (Littorella uniflora, state special concern) grows submerged as a basal rosette in low-nutrient lakes. The guide records its occurrence at Fox Lake as the southernmost documented location of the species in Michigan; every other known Michigan occurrence is in the Upper Peninsula (p. 39).

Presumed gone. Seaside crowfoot (Halerpestes cymbalaria) is the thirteenth species on the Appendix A list, carrying a state status of extirpated. The guide’s illustrated species pages do not include a profile for it, consistent with that status; its listing records a documented historical presence rather than a current one.

What the list does and does not establish

Every location named above comes from the guide’s own “Known Locations on Beaver Island” text, which is retrospective and non-systematic rather than the output of a standardized survey grid. The guide states plainly that some species’ locations are withheld from publication (ram’s-head lady-slipper) and that others are described only in general terms (“northeast shoreline,” “reported historically”). None of the thirteen accounts constitutes a population count, a mapped occurrence polygon, or evidence of current condition; several explicitly note decline (Houghton’s goldenrod) or an absence of confirmed reproduction (Michigan monkey-flower, statewide).

The fourteen significant natural-community types the guide’s Appendix A ranks alongside the rare-plant list — bog, boreal forest, dry-mesic northern forest, emergent marsh, hardwood-conifer swamp, interdunal wetland, limestone cobble shore, mesic northern forest, open dunes, poor conifer swamp, poor fen, rich conifer swamp, sand and gravel beach, and submergent marsh — are the same community vocabulary used by Wetlands, inland waters, and hydrology and Geology and landforms for their own, differently scaled evidence. This theme does not restate that community-level mapping; it adds the species-level layer the guide’s appendix supplies.

Added 4 August 2026. Recent changes