NATIVE RANGE: North America

FIRST FINDING IN SLOVENIA: 1910

PATHWAYS: horticulture

POSSIBLE TO FIND: year-round

FLOWERING SEASON: June – August

DESCRIPTION: Herbaceous perennial with unbranched stems. Leaves have long stalks and are palmately divided into 10 to 15 lanceolate leaflets. These are 4–15 cm long and 1–3 cm broad. Flowers are borne in erect, terminal racemes. Flowers are papilionaceous, pink to purple. Fruits are pods 2.5–6 cm long with oval seeds.

HABITAT: Roadsides, forest edges, stream banks, railway, embankments and close to human settlements. Within its introduced range, it grows especially on silicate soils in the montane zone.

STATUS: Widespread all over Europe but mostly absent in the Mediterranean area. iN sLOVENIA Naturalized and likely invasive in the wider area of Pohorje and Kozjak in northeastern Slovenia. Elsewhere likely only temporary present.

SIMILAR SPECIES: From a distance, certain blue-flowered monkshood species (Aconitum spp.) appear similar. They can be easily distinguished by their flower- and leaf shape. In monkshoods, leaves are palmately divided into 3 to 7 segments with leaf margins deeply incised and bearing a few large teeth.

SOURCE: Field Guide to Invasive Alien Species in European Forests