ACONITUM. Monkshood. Widespread in temperate portions of the Northern Hemisphere. I have long admired our elegant native monkshood, A. columbianum, in the mountains of California but have yet to grow it. However we can offer some equally beautiful representatives from Europe and Asia. These are robust deciduous perennials of the buttercup family, resembling the larkspurs (Delphinium) in several respects. They have stout branched rootstocks which continue to expand, yielding small colonies of seasonal shoots. The leafy stalks appear in spring and rise from a few inches to as much as 8’ high. Spaced along them are large dark, often shiny leaves, rounded overall in outline but lobed and toothed. Long clusters of colorful flowers develop at the shoot tips in summer and fall. Each has a complex structure including a hooded upper sepal, incurved lower sepals and spurred petals. The predominant colors are lavender to violet, with an occasional lilac or pure white. The monkshoods are striking plants for the background of perennial borders and beside ponds or other moist sites. For all their beauty, however, they are emphatically not for gardeners with small children, or even for those who live in neighborhoods where these creatures roam. All parts of the plants are usually direly poisonous! They thrive in sun or light shade, given porous, preferably acid soil and constant moisture. The following are hardy to 0^o or below.

fischeri (carmichaelii). China. This is one of the mostly easily and frequently cultivated of the monkshoods. It is of variable size–probably 3-4’ high in the current strain. The leaves are up to 4" broad and thick-textured. It is mostly fall-blooming, the flowers up to 2" long and borne in dense clusters. They often combine multiple shades of lavender-blue, purple and even white.

napellus. This species is distinguished by its smaller size (about 3’ in height) and more delicate appearance. The stems are more slender than those of A. fischeri, and the leaves are completely dissected into several narrow, pointed leaflets. The flowers are still quite large and colored, in the typical form, a vivid bluish purple. ‘Album’ is a pure white-flowered strain.