The helmet-shaped inky-blue flowers give this hardy herbaceous perennial a slightly sinister appearance appropriate to its properties. It has tuberous roots and delphinium-like foliage from which the flowering stems rise to a height of 1.5 m (5 ft).<\/p>\n
The generic name is from the Greek for a dart (akontion) in recognition of its one time use as an arrow poison, but the species name, napellus, meaning \u201clittle turnip\u201d, is supposedly for the shape of the roots, and gives no hint of the deadly nature of this plant. The popular name, monkshood, describes the curious shape of the flowers, while the common name for A. lycoctonum, wolf’s bane, is a reference to its ability to dispatch this once much-feared animal by sprinkling the juice over raw meat as bait. Stories of the dangers of aconite abound in herbals through the ages, such as Gerard\u2019s account of the \u201cignorant persons\u201d of Antwerp who were taken with \u201cmost cruel symptoms and so died\u201d when served the leaves in a salad as a \u201clamentable experiment\u201d.<\/p>\n
There are about 100 species, all of which are highly poisonous. A. lycoctonum has yellow, sometimes purple, flowers and A. carmichaelii, syn. A. fischeri, is sometimes used in Chinese medicine as a painkiller.<\/p>\n
The alkaloid, aconite, gives it toxicity. As a strong sedative and painkiller, it should be used only by qualified practitioners. A very small dose causes numbness of lips, tongue and extremities and can lead to vomiting, coma and death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The helmet-shaped inky-blue flowers give this hardy herbaceous perennial a slightly sinister appearance appropriate to its properties. It has tuberous roots and delphinium-like foliage from which the flowering stems rise to a height of 1.5 m (5 ft). History and traditions The generic name is from the Greek for a dart (akontion) in recognition of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-z"],"meta_box":{"botanical-name":"Aconitum napellus","common-names":"Aconite, Blue rocket, Helmet Flower, Monkshood, Devil's helmet, Leopard's bane, Queen of poisons, Wolfsbane, Woman's bane","family":"Ranunculaceae","flower_bloom_time":[{"term_id":114,"name":"Summer","slug":"summer","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":114,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":112,"count":163,"filter":"raw"}],"flower_color":[{"term_id":123,"name":"Blue","slug":"blue","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":123,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":116,"count":24,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":122,"name":"Purple","slug":"purple","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":122,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":116,"count":60,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":118,"name":"White","slug":"white","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":118,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":116,"count":113,"filter":"raw"}],"plant_life_cycle":[{"term_id":127,"name":"Perennial","slug":"perennial","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":127,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":84,"count":133,"filter":"raw"}],"plant_types":[{"term_id":138,"name":"Herbaceous Perennial","slug":"herbaceous-perennial","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":138,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":88,"count":56,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":132,"name":"Poisonous","slug":"poisonous","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":132,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":88,"count":29,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":137,"name":"Wildflower","slug":"wildflower","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":137,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":88,"count":22,"filter":"raw"}],"soil_ph":[{"term_id":109,"name":"Acidic Soil","slug":"acidic-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":109,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":108,"count":148,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":111,"name":"Alkaline Soil","slug":"alkaline-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":111,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":108,"count":117,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":110,"name":"Neutral Soil","slug":"neutral-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":110,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":108,"count":158,"filter":"raw"}],"soil_type":[{"term_id":102,"name":"Clay Soil","slug":"clay-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":102,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":108,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":105,"name":"Loamy Soil","slug":"loamy-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":105,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":179,"filter":"raw"}],"sun_exposure":[{"term_id":97,"name":"Full","slug":"full","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":97,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":96,"count":197,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":98,"name":"Partial","slug":"partial","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":98,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":96,"count":126,"filter":"raw"}],"usda_hardiness_zones":"Zone: 3 - 7","region_or_country_of_origin":"Mountainous Ares of the northern hemisphere","plant_mature_size":"
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