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Key to Aconitum

Ranunculaceae

Aconitum

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1 Flowers white, creamy white, or yellowish; basal leaves numerous, large, usually 10-20 cm across, on long, stout petioles; roots fascicled; [subgenus Lycoctonum]
1 Flowers pale to medium blue (rarely white); basal leaves fewer, smaller, rarely over 10 cm across, on shorter and wirier petioles; root thickened, tuberous; [subgenus Aconitum; section Napellus].
  2 Upper leaves mostly 7-lobed; helmet about as high as long, rounded or slightly prolonged above the beak; [NY, OH, WI, and IA]
  2 Upper leaves mostly 3-5-lobed; helmet usually higher than long and prolonged above the beak; [relatively widespread in our area]