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Arnica montana
Also called Mountain Tobacco, European Arnica, Leopard's Bane, Mountain Snuff, Wolf's Bane, Arnica, Leopardsbane
Mountain arnica is a perennial daisy-family herb from European mountain meadows, grown for its bright yellow flower heads. It does best in cool, nutrient-poor, acidic soil in full sun.
Arnica montana, also known as leopard's bane, mountain tobacco and mountain arnica, is a moderately toxic European flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae that has a large yellow flower head. The names "wolf's bane" and "leopard's bane" are also used for another plant, Aconitum, which is extremely poisonous.
Arnica montana has been used as a herbal medicine, but there is insufficient clinical evidence for its therapeutic use. It is toxic when taken internally or applied to injured skin.
Arnica montana is propagated from seed. Generally, 20% of seeds do not germinate. For large scale planting, it is recommended to raise plants first in a nursery and then to transplant them in the field. Seeds sprout in 14–20 days but germination rate depends highly on the seed quality. Planting density for Arnica montana is of 20 plants/m2 such that the maximum yield density will be achieved in the second flowering season. While Arnica montana has high exigencies of soil quality, analyses should be done before any fertilizer input.
The flowers are harvested when fully developed and dried without their bract nor receptacles. The roots can be harvested in autumn and dried as well after being carefully washed.
Arnica montana is widespread across most of Europe. It is absent from the Celtic Isles and the Italian and Balkan peninsulas. In addition, it is considered extinct in Hungary and Lithuania. Arnica montana grows in nutrient-poor siliceous meadows or clay soils. It mostly grows on alpine meadows and up to nearly 3,000 m (9,800 ft). In more upland regions, it may also be found on nutrient-poor moors and heaths. Arnica does not grow on lime soil, indicating its use as a bioindicator of nutrient poor and acidic soils. It is rare overall, but may be locally abundant. It is becoming rarer, particularly in the north of its distribution, largely due to increasingly intensive agriculture and commercial wildcrafting (foraging). Nevertheless, it is cultivated on a large scale in Estonia.
Arnica montana has been used as a herbal medicine. When used as a topical medication in a gel at 50% concentration, A. montana was found to have the same effectiveness (albeit with possibly worse side effects) as a 5% ibuprofen gel for treating the symptoms of hand osteoarthritis. A 2014 review found that A. montana was ineffective at concentrations of 10% or less for pain, swelling, and bruises. A 1998 review of homeopathic A. montana (all such preparations are so dilute that they contain none of the plant) found it is no more effective than a placebo.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Arnica montana 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.
