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Aconitum ferox
Also called Himalayan Monkshood, Blue aconite
Indian aconite is a tuberous perennial of the Himalayas, growing up to 1 m tall, and is one of the most poisonous plants in the region. It is grown mainly as a medicinal and ornamental plant in cool, temperate gardens rather than as a casual houseplant.
Aconitum ferox (syn. A. virorum) is a member of the monkshood genus Aconitum of the Ranunculaceae. The common name by which it is most often known in English is Indian Aconite, while the Hindi names used by practitioners of Ayurveda include वत्सनाभ vatsanabha (= "root resembling the navel of a child") and महाविषा mahavisha (= "great poison").
A tuberous-rooted, herbaceous perennial reaching 1.0 metre tall by 0.5 metres wide and tolerant of many soil types, Aconitum ferox forms the principal source of the Indian poison known variously as bikh, bish, and nabee. It contains large quantities of the extremely toxic alkaloid pseudaconitine (also known as nepaline, after Nepal) and is considered to be the most poisonous plant found in the Himalaya.
The species is native to the eastern Himalayas from central Nepal eastward through the north of West Bengal, Sikkim, Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to Assam.
With due caution in regard to its extreme potency and toxicity (and the consequent danger of overdose), the plant has long been used in the folk medicine (incorporating Ayurvedic and sometimes also homeopathic elements) of the Indian state of Sikkim on the southeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau.
Carmichael's monkshood · Korean Monk’shood · Aconitum henryi · Monk's-hood · Monkshood
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Aconitum ferox by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
