WorldFloraDB - Aconitum

Characteristics

Herbs , perennial, from tubers or elongate, fascicled roots. Leaves basal and cauline, proximal leaves petiolate, distal leaves sessile or nearly so; cauline leaves alternate. Leaf blade palmately divided into 3-7 segments, ultimate segments narrowly elliptic or lanceolate to linear, margins incised and toothed. Inflorescences terminal, sometimes also axillary, 1-32(-more) racemes or panicles, to 28 cm; bracts leaflike, not forming involucre. Flowers bisexual, bilaterally symmetric; sepals not persistent in fruit; lower sepals (pendents) 2, plane, 6-20 mm; lateral sepals 2, round-reniform; upper sepal (hood) 1, saccate, arched, crescent-shaped or hemispheric to rounded-conic or tall and cylindric, usually beaked, 10-50 mm; petals 2, distinct, bearing near apex a capitate to coiled spur, concealed in hood, long-clawed; nectary present, on spur; stamens 25-50; filaments with base expanded; staminodes absent between stamens and pistils; pistils 3(-5), simple; ovules 10-20 per pistil; style present. Fruits follicles, aggregate, sessile, oblong, sides prominently transversely veined; beak terminal, straight, 2-3 mm. Seeds deltoid, usually with small, transverse, membranous lamellae. x =8.

Herbs perennial or pseudoannual, rarely annual, with taproots or 2 to several caudices. Stem erect or twining. Leaves simple or compound, cauline ones alternate, sometimes all basal, palmately divided, rarely undivided. Inflorescence usually racemose. Pedicel with 2 bracteoles. Flowers bisexual, zygomorphic. Sepals 5, petaloid, purple, blue, or yellow; lower sepals 2, narrowly lanceolate or oblong, small; lateral sepals 2, suborbicular; upper sepal falcate, navicular, galeate to cylindric. Petals 2, clawed; limb usually with lip and spur, secretory tissue usually at limb apex, rarely abaxial. Staminodes usually absent. Stamens numerous; anthers ellipsoid-globose. Carpels 3--5(--13); style short, persistent.

Fls irregular; calyx corolloid, with unequal sep, the upper one (called the helmet) the largest, strongly arched or hooded, its tip prolonged forward and downward into a short beak; upper 2 pet concealed under the helmet, clawed, nectariferous at the tip; lower 3 pet vestigial or wanting; stamens numerous; pistils 3–5, the fr follicular; poisonous perennial herbs with broad, palmately cleft lvs and showy, mostly blue or white fls in a terminal raceme or panicle. 50+, Eurasia and N. Amer.

Life form	perennial
Growth form	herb
Growth support	-
Foliage retention	-
Sexuality	hermaphrodite
Pollination	-
Spread	-
Mature width (meter)	-
Mature height (meter)	-
Root system	tap-root
Rooting depth (meter)	-
Root diameter (meter)	-
Flower color
Blooming months	-
Fruit color	-
Fruiting months	-
Nitrogen fixer	-
Photosynthetic pathway	-

Environment

Light	-
Soil humidity	-
Soil texture	-
Soil acidity	-
Soil nutriment	-
Hardiness (USDA)

Usage

Uses	medicinal
Edible	-
Therapeutic use	Anodyne (unspecified), Antispasmodic (unspecified)
Human toxicity	-
Animal toxicity	-

Cultivation

Mode	-
Germination duration (days)	5 - 270
Germination temperacture (C°)	12 - 15
Germination luminosity	-
Germination treatment	-
Minimum temperature (C°)	-
Optimum temperature (C°)	-
Size	-
Vigor	-
Productivity	-