[8] The Greek name lycoctonum, which translates literally to "wolf's bane", is thought to indicate the use of its juice to poison arrows or baits used to kill wolves.

The tall, erect stem is crowned by racemes of large blue, purple, white, yellow, or pink zygomorphic flowers with numerous stamens.

They are distinguishable by having one of the five petaloid sepals (the posterior one), called the galea, in the form of a cylindrical helmet, hence the English name monkshood.

[11] The lack of double-flowered forms in the horticultural trade stands in contrast with the other genera of Ranunculaceae used regularly in gardens.

The yellow tiger moth Arctia flavia, and the purple-shaded gem Euchalcia variabilis are at home on A. vulparia.

[12] The engrailed Ectropis crepuscularia, yellow-tail Euproctis similis, mouse moth Amphipyra tragopoginis, pease blossom Periphanes delphinii, and Mniotype bathensis, have been observed feeding on A. napellus.

[17] This is likely due to the nectary flowers of the latter being more easily reachable by the butterflies; however, the differing alkaloid character of the two plants may also play a significant role or be the primary influence.

Most Aconitum species prefer to have their roots cool and moist, with the majority of the leaves exposed to sun, like the related Clematis.

As a result, they are not described as being "heavy feeders" (needing a higher quantity of fertilizer versus most other flowering plants)—unlike gardeners' delphiniums.

As with most in Ranunculaceae, seeds that are not planted soon after harvesting should be stored moist-packed in vermiculite to avoid dormancy and viability issues.

In the UK, the following have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit: Monkshood and other members of the genus Aconitum contain substantial amounts of the highly toxic aconitine and related alkaloids, especially in their roots and tubers.

[3] Aconitine is a potent neurotoxin and cardiotoxin that causes persistent depolarization of neuronal sodium channels in tetrodotoxin-sensitive tissues.

[citation needed] The influx of sodium through these channels and the delay in their repolarization increases their excitability and may lead to diarrhea, convulsions, ventricular arrhythmia, and death.

[4] In severe poisonings, pronounced motor weakness occurs and cutaneous sensations of tingling and numbness spread to the limbs.

Usually, one man in a kayak armed with a poison-tipped lance would hunt the whale, paralyzing it with the poison and causing it to drown.

[43] In a review of Alisha Rankin's The Poison Trials,[44][full citation needed] Alison Abbott, writing in Nature, reports Rankin's proposal of 1524 as the first human trial with a control arm, indicating the book's description of a 16th century source presenting Pope Clement VII poisoning a pair of prisoners with aconite-laced marzipan, testing an antidote on one that survived, leaving the untreated prisoner to suffer a painful death.

[51] In the poem Metamorphoses, Ovid tells of the herb coming from the slavering mouth of Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guarded the gates of Hades.

[citation needed][53][non-primary source needed] As the veterinary historian John Blaisdell has noted, symptoms of aconite poisoning in humans bear similarity to those of rabies: frothy saliva, impaired vision, vertigo, and finally, coma; thus, ancient Greeks could have believed that this poison, mythically born of Cerberus's lips, was literally the same as found inside the mouth of a rabid dog.

[54][full citation needed] As a well-known poison from ancient times, aconite (including as wolfsbane, in its various spellings) often found place in historical fiction.

[citation needed] It is the poison used by a murderer in the third of the Cadfael Chronicles, Monk's Hood by Ellis Peters, published in 1980 and set in 1138 in Shrewsbury, England.

[full citation needed] Taken from Shasekishu, a 13th-century anthology collected by Mujū, the story describes servants who decide that the dried aconite root is really sugar, and suffer unpleasant though nonlethal symptoms after eating it.

[56] In the 16th century, Shakespeare, writing in Henry IV Part II Act 4 Scene 4, refers to aconite, alongside rash gunpowder, working as strongly as the "venom of suggestion" to break up close relationships.

[citation needed] In the 1931 classic horror film Dracula starring Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula and Helen Chandler as Mina Seward, reference is made to wolf's bane (aconitum); towards the end of the film, "Van Helsing holds up a sprig of wolf's bane".

[citation needed] In the 2003 Korean television series Dae Jang Geum, set in the 15th and 16th centuries, Choi put "wolf's bane" in the previous queen's food.

[citation needed] In the 1980 novel Monk's-Hood, third in Ellis Peters' series The Cadfael Chronicles and set in 1138, a wealthy donator to Shrewsbury Abbey, Gervase Bonel, is murdered with stolen Monks-hood liniment prepared by the Abbey's herbalist Brother Cadfael, who needs to identify the true culprit to exonerate Bonel's stepson Edwin.

[citation needed] In the 2000s television show Merlin, the titular character attempts to poison Arthur with aconite while under a spell.

[citation needed] In the 2010s TV series Forever, Dr. Henry Morgan identifies the plants in the villain's greenhouse as specifically Aconitum variegatum, which he has used to create a poison to release into the ventilation system of Grand Central Terminal.

[citation needed] In the second season of the BBC drama Shakespeare and Hatherway, episode 9, a tennis player is poisoned through the skin of his palm by aconite smeared on the handle of his racquet.

[citation needed] In the 2024 Netflix thriller Carry-On, the Traveller (played by Jason Bateman) murders some of his targets by poisoning them with aconitum.

[62] Wolf's bane is used as an analogy for the power of divine communion in Liber 65 1:13–16, one of Aleister Crowley's Holy Books of Thelema.