Korkeapiisku – Solidago altissima

The wide natural areal of tall goldenrod covers almost every state in the USA south of Alaska, and parts of Mexico as well as the southern boundary of Canada from almost west to east.

The differences between the Canadian goldenrod and the tall goldenrod are so small that in the past the tall goldenrod has been preferred to be considered a variety of the Canadian goldenrod. Throughout Europe the hairy form of the Canadian goldenrod has been mistaken to be regarded as a tall goldenrod. Because of this, for years, the tall goldenrod has been reported as a fugitive in many European countries, including Finland. In fact, the first real sighting of the tall goldenrod in the wild in Europe seems to be in 2016 in Belgium. The tall goldenrod has been verified to be wild-growing in South Africa, China, Japan, Australia, Tonga and Hawaii.

The tall goldenrod seems to be absent in Finland at least as a fugitive. The observations of tall goldenrods in Finnish nature are likely to be pubescent variants of the Canadian goldenrod and no confirmed sightings of the tall goldenrod exists.