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Nepal Monkshood
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Nepal Monkshood
ative Photo: Krishan Lal
Common name: Nepal Monkshood • Hindi: Mohro, Mouro, Mohra bish, Safed bish
Botanical name: Aconitum heterophylloides    Family: Ranunculaceae (Buttercup family)
Synonyms: Aconitum deinorrhizum, Aconitum laciniatum, Aconitum nepalense

Nepal Monkshood is a tall hairless, biennial herb with paired tuberous roots. The daughter tubers are longish conical, upto 15 cm long and 3.5 cm in diameter at the top. Leaves are scattered, kidney-shaped or ovate-kidney-shaped, 5-10 cm long, pointed or blunt, 5-lobed almost to the base. Stem leaves are sharply toothed, lower ones long-stalked. Flowers are more that 2.5 cm long, bright blue to greenish blue with purple veins, borne in racemes at branch ends, up to 45 cm long. Fruit is a capsule bearing numerous seeds. Nepal Monkshood is found in the Himalayas, from Indus to Kumaon, Himachal Pradesh, at altitudes of 2400-3800 m. Flowering: July-September.
Medicinal uses: Roots and leaves are used in rheumatism, rheumatic fever and acute headache. The roots contain 0.9% total alkaloids, of which 0.51% is pseudoaconitine.

Identification credit: Krishan Lal Photographed in Chanshal Pass, Himachal Pradesh.

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