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Eranthis hyemalis
Also called Winter Hellebore, Choirboys, Winter Wolf’s Bane
Winter-aconite is a small tuberous perennial in the buttercup family that flowers with bright yellow cups in late winter and early spring, often through snow. Plant the tubers in autumn in woodland-like conditions and let the foliage die back naturally.
Eranthis hyemalis, the winter aconite, is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae, native to calcareous woodland habitats in France, Italy and the Balkans, and widely naturalized elsewhere in Europe.
The plant is valued in cultivation as one of the earliest flowers to appear. E. hyemalis and the sterile hybrid cultivar 'Guinea Gold' have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
All parts of the plant are poisonous when consumed by humans and other mammals, because it contains cardiac glycosides similar to those present in Adonis vernalis. Glycosides of this type stimulate the heart when administered in small doses, but in very large doses may cause serious, often irreparable heart damage. Poisoning symptoms include colicky abdominal pains, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, disturbed vision, dyspnea, bradycardia, and, in severe cases, cardiac arrest. Specific cardiac glycosides present in E. hyemalis include Eranthin A and B, belonging to the bufadienolide group, also found in (and named for) the toad venom bufotoxin.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Eranthis hyemalis 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.
