''Aconitum firmum'' (

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

: ''oměj tuhý'',

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

: ''tojad mocny'',

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

: Аконіт міцний,

Romanized Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...

: Akonіt mіtzniy) is a species of

monkshood ''Aconitum'' (), also known as aconite, monkshood, wolf's-bane, leopard's bane, mousebane, women's bane, devil's helmet, queen of poisons, or blue rocket, is a genus of over 250 species of flowering plants belonging to the family Ranunculaceae. ...

that is found in Southern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

, and

Czechia The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The Cz ...

, with a few instances in Ukraine and Romania.

Appearance

''Aconitum firmum'' has indigo flowers that are about 2 centimeters big, and can grow up to around 40 centimeters tall.

Toxicity

Like all monkshoods, ''Aconitum firmum'' is highly poisonous. All parts of the plant, with the highest concentration being in the roots and seeds, contain

aconitine Aconitine is an alkaloid toxin produced by various plant species belonging to the genus '' Aconitum'' (family Ranunculaceae), known also commonly by the names wolfsbane and monkshood. Monkshood is notorious for its toxic properties. Aconitine is ...

, which is a potent nerve poison.

Conservation

In Poland, ''Aconitum firmum'' is a protected species, along with all other monkshood species in Poland. The subspecies ''A. firmum'' subsp. ''moravicum'' is recognized as Near Threatened by the IUCN Red List, although ''A. firmum'' itself has not been evaluated by the IUCN.

Taxonomy

Name

''Aconitum firmum'' was named by

Ludwig Reichenbach Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach (8 January 1793 – 17 March 1879) was a German botanist and ornithologist. It was he who first requested Leopold Blaschka to make a set of glass marine invertebrate models for scientific education and museu ...

. The species name ''firmum'' comes from the

inflection In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and defin ...

of the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word ''firmus'', meaning stable and firm. The Czech, Polish, and Ukrainian common names reflect on this and can be literally translated to "strong aconite".

Subspecies

''Aconitum firmum'' is divided into 6 subspecies and 1 variety which are: * ''Aconitum firmum'' subsp. ''bucovinense'' (Zapal.) Aschers. & Graebn. * ''Aconitum firmum'' subsp. ''firmum'' * ''Aconitum firmum'' subsp. ''maninense'' (Skalický) Starm. * ''Aconitum firmum'' subsp. ''moravicum'' V.Skalick * ''Aconitum firmum'' subsp. ''paxii'' Starm. * ''Aconitum firmum'' subsp. ''zapalowiczii'' Starm. * ''Aconitum firmum'' var. ''portae-ferratae'' Starm. & Mitka

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3390128 firmum Taxa named by Ludwig Reichenbach