Apparently, there are TWO plants that are referred to as wolfsbane. The first is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnica_montana
and the second is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aconitum
Which one is the one that is used for curing lycanthropy? I want to know so I know how to describe the flowers that the PC's find.
Both. Medieval herblore and folklore in general isn't at all consistent, and names got reused often.
that makes it more complicated. Darn it.
That's what the people on my Facebook group thought. However, in 1941's The Wolf Man, the flowers were yellow (arnica montana)....
its the second one, 10+ years working with plants:)
Do all aconitum have purple flowers?
they have two layers, a purple outer layer and a yellow inner layer the poison is derived i believe from the inner layer.
there could be different color variations, at last count ther were 70+ million variations of 10+ million different plants catologued so it wouldn't surprise me, i personally have only seen the purple outside-yellow inside variation
edit: fixed my math:)
If you think that's bad, go look up mistletoe. Four families IIRC, not closely related?
I'd use Arnica montana if I were you. Aconitum is an entire genus; you would find up to 250 pictures (that seems to be the number of species in the genus, not counting subspecies or hybrids) if you use that.
I thought belladonna and wolfsbane were the same thing.
Aconitum is the more poisonous plant, so I would go with that.
