aconite

Herbaceous plant belonging to the buttercup family, with hooded blue-mauve flowers, native to Europe and Asia. It produces aconitine, a poison with pain-killing and sleep-inducing properties. (Aconitum napellus, family Ranunculaceae.)

There are about 100 species throughout the northern temperate regions, all hardy herbaceous plants containing poison. Summer aconite (Aconitum uncinatum) is a common North American flower. Winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) belongs to another genus of the buttercup family; it has yellow buttercuplike flowers with six petals which appear in February and March; the leaves follow later.

A. ferox, the bikh or bish of Nepal, contains the fatal bikh poison in its root.