Monkshood is sold in American garden centers. It has tall violet hoods, it thrives in partial shade, and its root is one of the most reliably lethal things a homeowner can plant on purpose.
That plant and its cousin, larkspur, are the subject of a chemistry milestone reported in the journal Molecular Plant and announced by Michigan State University this month. Working with the Czech Academy of Sciences, the team identified the first six enzymatic steps in the biosynthesis of the diterpenoid alkaloid atisinium. The reason that matters is not only that the chemical family contains painkiller candidates. It is that harvesting these compounds from the plants themselves has never stopped hurting people and livestock.
