Aconitum septentrionale

Aconitum septentrionale is a stout herbaceous perennial of the buttercup family growing 60-150 cm tall from a fleshy, tuber-like taproot. Stems are erect, glabrous or finely pubescent above, simple or branched only in the inflorescence. Leaves are alternate, long-petiolate below, palmately divided into 5-7 broad, deeply lobed segments with coarsely toothed margins, the blade 8-20 cm across, dark green and somewhat shiny above. The inflorescence is an open terminal raceme or narrow panicle of large, slightly pendulous flowers each 2.5-4 cm long; the colour is a distinctive dull greyish-violet to dirty blue, occasionally yellowish. The hood-shaped upper sepal is narrowly cylindrical and conspicuously elongated, projecting forward and giving the flower a slender helmet appearance unlike the broader hood of common monkshood. The remaining four sepals are petaloid and obovate. Fruits are clusters of usually three follicles containing winged seeds. Native to mountain meadows and tall-herb communities of northern Europe and Siberia, it flowers in summer.