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Japanese Monkshood🌸
Aconitum japonicum
ヤマトリカブト
A perennial in the buttercup family, native to mountains of Honshū south of Fukushima — the representative species of Japanese Aconitum. In autumn, bluish-purple helmet-shaped flowers form racemes. All parts, especially the root, contain aconitine alkaloids, making it one of Japan's three most poisonous plants. Historically used by the Ainu as arrow poison. Though cultivated for its beauty, fatal poisonings occur every year when misidentified as the edible nirin-sō or momiji-gasa.
Identification Points
- ✓Bluish-purple helmet-shaped flowers in racemes
- ✓Palmately 3–5 lobed leaves
- ✓About 1 m tall; late summer to autumn
Habitat
Mountain forest edges and grasslands
Season
August to October (flowers)
Morphological TraitsAI-estimated, needs verification
Leaf arrangement
Alternate
Leaf type
Simple
Leaf shape
Palmate
Growth form
Herb
Flower color
Purple
Flowering season
Summer
Habitat
Mountain
Phylogenetic Positionキンポウゲ科 →
Phylogenetic Position
Angiosperms > Basal eudicots > Ranunculales > Ranunculaceae
Divergence Era
Late Cretaceous (approx. 90–80 million years ago)
Sources & References
AI-generated, needs verification