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Montana Field Guides

Columbia Monkshood - Aconitum columbianum

Native Species

Global Rank: G5
State Rank: S4?
C-value: 5


Agency Status
USFWS:
USFS:
BLM:


 

External Links






 
General Description
Perennial with a tuberous crown, fibrous roots and hollow stems to 180 cm. Leaves alternate, petiolate; blades 5–15 cm long, deltoid, deeply divided into 5 to 7 toothed lobes. Inflorescence an open leafy-bracteate raceme Flowers irregular; sepals 5, yellow to bluish; uppermost (hood) helmet-like, 15–25 mm high; the lateral pair fan-shaped; the lower pair much narrower; petals 2, concealed in the hood; stamens many, shorter than the sepals; pistils 3 to 5; stamens numerous. Fruit 3 to 5 follicles, 10–15 mm long, glabrous to glandular (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Species Range
Montana Range Range Descriptions

Native
 


Range Comments
BC to CA, AZ, TX, and Mexico (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Observations in Montana Natural Heritage Program Database
Number of Observations: 250

(Click on the following maps and charts to see full sized version) Map Help and Descriptions
Relative Density

Recency

 

(Observations spanning multiple months or years are excluded from time charts)



Habitat
Moist to wet meadows, open forest, often along streams; montane, subalpine (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Ecology
POLLINATORS
The following animal species have been reported as pollinators of this plant species or its genus where their geographic ranges overlap: Bombus appositus, Bombus centralis, Bombus flavifrons, and Bombus occidentalis (Macior 1974, Thorp et al. 1983, Mayer et al. 2000, Pyke et al. 2012, Miller-Struttmann and Galen 2014).

Stewardship Responsibility

References
  • Literature Cited AboveLegend:   View Online Publication
    • Lesica, P., M.T. Lavin, and P.F. Stickney. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. Fort Worth, TX: BRIT Press. viii + 771 p.
    • Macior, L.M. 1974. Pollination ecology of the Front Range of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Melanderia 15: 1-59.
    • Mayer, D.F., E.R. Miliczky, B.F. Finnigan, and C.A. Johnson. 2000. The bee fauna (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) of southeastern Washington. Journal of the Entomological Society of British Columbia 97: 25-31.
    • Miller-Struttmann, N.E. and C. Galen. 2014. High-altitude multi-taskers: bumble bee food plant use broadens along an altitudinal productivity gradient. Oecologia 176:1033-1045.
    • Pyke, G.H., D.W. Inouye, and J.D. Thomson. 2012. Local geographic distributions of bumble bees near Crested Butte, Colorado: competition and community structure revisited. Environmental Entomology 41(6): 1332-1349.
    • Thorp, R.W., D.S. Horning, and L.L. Dunning. 1983. Bumble bees and cuckoo bumble bees of California (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Bulletin of the California Insect Survey 23:1-79.
  • Additional ReferencesLegend:   View Online Publication
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    • Conrad, C.C. 1979. Characteristics of Pocket Gopher populations in relation to selected environmental factors in Pelican Valley, Yellowstone National Park. M.Sc. Thesis. Bozeman, Montana: Montana State University. 79 p.
    • Culver, D.R. 1994. Floristic analysis of the Centennial Region, Montana. M.Sc. Thesis. Montana State University, Bozeman. 199 pp.
    • Jones, W. W. 1901. Preliminary flora of Gallatin County. M.S. Thesis. Bozeman, MT: Montana State College. 78 pp.
    • King, C. R. 1953. The Ranunculaceae of Montana. M.S. Thesis, Bozeman, MT: Montana State College. 82 p.
    • Lesica, P., M.T. Lavin, and P.F. Stickney. 2022. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants, Second Edition. Fort Worth, TX: BRIT Press. viii + 779 p.
  • Web Search Engines for Articles on "Columbia Monkshood"
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Citation for data on this website:
Columbia Monkshood — Aconitum columbianum.  Montana Field Guide.  .  Retrieved on , from