Threatened Northern Monkshood plant finds help and home in Summit Metro Parks 

In a secret corner of the Summit Metro Parks, hidden well away from trails and people, one of the last wild habitats of a purple-flowered plant species known as Northern Monkshood is shielded from threats. 

The federally threatened species, listed since 1978, is native to the eastern United States, with wild populations remaining only in four states: Iowa, Wisconsin, New York and Ohio. The Ohio population is almost completely contained to Summit County, where the SMP conservation team manages a healthy — but precariously small — population of just 150 plants. 

“We have three sites known from Ohio, one in the Hocking Hills area and a couple up in Northeast Ohio. Ours is the largest, and we have about 150 plants right now, which is down but healthy,” said Rob Curtis, supervisor of ecological resources for SMP and the person primarily responsible for the plants since the mid 2010s.

“They’re doing well,” he said.

Akron Documenter Ken Evans writes occasional environmental stories that impact residents in Akron and Summit County.

What is Northern Monkshood?

Also known as wolfsbane, devil’s helmet and aconite, the Northern Monkshood is just one of hundreds of flower species identified as part of the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) native to the Northern Hemisphere. Most are highly poisonous (including Northern Monkshood) and should not be handled or ingested. 

Medium-sized and herbivorous (meaning non-woody), the perennial Northern Monkshood has jagged, dark green leaves, small green bean-like seed pods and light purple flowers with a distinctive hooded petal shape. 

Blooming from mid-July to mid-September, the species is incredibly particular about where it grows, requiring shaded, damp, sandy soils. 

“It is considered a glacial relic, basically a remnant from glaciation in these kinds of nooks and crannies, off rock outcrops or large ravines,” Curtis said. 

While similar to the Asian and European decorative varieties that can be found at garden stores, Northern Monkshood is genetically distinct and represents a rare piece of Ohio’s natural history, one conservationists are desperate not to lose.

“As far as [being] globally imperiled, it’s the most globally imperiled species in Summit County,” Curtis said. 

Saving this purple plant started in the 1980s

Work to save the plant began in the early 1980s, when it became clear that its numbers were dropping drastically. Combined efforts between the Summit Metro Parks, the Akron Garden Club and Holden Arboretum worked to preserve seed, explore grafting options, and attempt to propagate the plants elsewhere. 

By the time Mike Johnson, SMP’s current chief of conservation, joined the park system, only about a dozen plants were still growing wild. 

“The fate of the plants in the park just continued to decline. And when I got here, they were probably at an all-time low,” Johnson said. 

The primary culprit for the plants’ decline was road salt seeping into the natural springs that watered the plants. Working with the Ohio Department of Transportation, road runoff was diverted. At the same time, Johnson and the SMP conservation team worked to make the site as conducive to the plants’ growth as possible. 

An invasive plant, Hoary willowherb, caused problems for Northern Monkshood as well. 

With only about a dozen Northern Monkshood plants left, Johnson came in removed all invasive and native species from around the small population of Monkshood plants.

A rebound to 300 plants before stabilizing around 150

Once that happened, the Northern Monkshood was able to get back into its niche where it would eventually grow to about 300 plants, Curtis said. At this point conservationists let native plants return to grow alongside the Monkshood “which is giving some competition, which is good and healthy — like eating your vegetables.” And now it’s down to a stable 150 plants due to natural competition.

Additionally, through a partnership with the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden’s Center for Research of Endangered Wildlife, steps have been taken to ensure that even if the native population was lost, the plant would not go extinct.

“We’ve been working with CREW to clone the plants using more laboratory techniques. They’ve actually been able to grow us plants from single cells,” Johnson said. 

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The future of Northern Monkshood

The plants have faced many dangers over the years, including steep declines in bumblebees — their only pollinator — hungry groundhogs and plant poachers looking to sell rare plants to collectors. The plant’s preferred environment under rock overhangs can also present dangers as pieces of sandstone erode and collapse.

“They’re in a very precarious place, because they grow in a place that’s prone to … natural disasters. Many natural disasters,” Curtis said.

The August 2026 annual count revealed 153 plants which is higher than last year. The results still concern Curtis who thinks the population is slowly declining.

The goal is to continue to protect and preserve this singular population but also to get the plants to take hold at other sites. It’s a challenge, since both Curtis and Johnson admit that, while they know a lot about the plant, they still don’t know all of its growing requirements. 

“We have attempted to establish other, smaller populations nearby in the same park with similar habitat. And we’ve had some success doing that, but not much. The vast majority of the plants still exist in this one historical location,” Johnson said.

Why keep going?

For Curtis, working with so few plants in a precarious location is just who he is. 

“I am a conservationist at heart. That’s part of who I am,” he said. “I want these things to be here for my children and their children, for everyone to appreciate.”

He said that regional native species like monkshood are part of “our natural heritage here, and something that we should be responsible for and have some good stewardship of.”

Johnson said that there is also a real and practical reason to preserve nature in all its forms. 

“Almost all of our medicines are derived directly from plants in nature. We don’t, as people, invent new things as much as we copy nature,” he said.

He said that one of the most sought-after medications today was derived from the gastrointestinal fluids of an endangered lizard from the southwest United States. 

“Do you know what that medicine is? Ozempic,” he said.