About Aconitum L.
Aconitum lycoctonum, commonly known as wolf's-bane or northern wolf's-bane, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Aconitum, family Ranunculaceae. It is native to much of Europe and northern Asia, where it grows from lowlands to the subalpine zone, mainly in forests and other shaded habitats. Alongside A. napellus, it is one of the most common European species of the Aconitum genus. It is also grown as an ornamental plant in gardens, where it grows well in ordinary garden soil. As a result of cultivation, A. lycoctonum can now be found in North America, especially in eastern Canada, where it often occurs in old gardens or grows as a garden escapee. The specific epithet lycoctonum is a modern Latin rendering of the traditional name "wolf's-bane". The species name Aconitum lycoctonum was published by Carl Linnaeus, who found this plant growing in Lapland, Finland in 1727. Aconitum lycoctonum specimens have been described as having high morphological variability, but molecular studies have found small genetic distances between populations, so A. lycoctonum is currently considered to represent a species complex containing multiple taxa with uncertain taxonomic rank. Aconitum lycoctonum is an herbaceous perennial plant that grows to 1 m tall. Its leaves are palmately lobed, with four to six deeply cut lobes. Its flowers are 18–25 mm long, dark violet, and rarely pale yellow. Aconitum flowers are five-petaled, zygomorphic, and protandrous. The posterior petal is shaped like a helmet, which hides two nectaries. In A. lycoctonum, the nectary tips are long and highly curled, an adaptation that supports specialized pollination. The species produces multiple stamens. Its ovary is typically made up of three free carpels, though it can have up to five. Its fruits are follicles. The plant's inflorescence is a raceme, where flower maturation occurs from the bottom to the top of the structure. Specimens growing at high elevations tend to produce more flowers per inflorescence, and more inflorescences per plant, than specimens found at low elevations. All species of Aconitum are pollinated by bumblebees of the genus Bombus. A. lycoctonum is mainly pollinated by Bombus hortorum in lowlands and Bombus gerstaeckeri in highlands; both of these are long-tongued bumblebee species that can reach nectar located at the end of the nectaries. The flower's nectar also attracts other insects, including flies, and short-tongued bumblebees such as Bombus wurflenii, which act as nectar robbers but may occasionally pollinate the plant as well. Like all species in the genus Aconitum, A. lycoctonum is poisonous. All parts of the plant contain a wide variety of alkaloids, which act primarily on muscular endplates. Alkaloids including gigactonine, demethylenedelcorine, 14-O-methyldelphinifoline, pseudokobusine, lycoctonine, lycaconitine, and myoctonine have been isolated from the roots and seeds of A. lycoctonum. Gigactonine is the main alkaloid found in the flowers of this species, alongside 6-Oacetyldemethylenedelcorine (1), 6-O-acetyl-14-O-methyldelphinifoline, 14-O-methyldelphinifoline, and lycoctonine. The alkaloids in A. lycoctonum have much lower toxicity than those found in A. napellus. Unlike A. napellus, A. lycoctonum does not contain aconitine, the main alkaloid produced by A. napellus. While A. napellus was used for its antipyretic and analgesic properties until recent times, medical use of A. lycoctonum became obsolete far earlier, and it is only mentioned in ancient texts.
