Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.
Monkshood is generally rated fire resistant, but Colorado's 7.5 score and a British Columbia research flag qualify that answer.
Colorado State University Extension and the Colorado State Forest Service publish 7.5 out of ten for Aconitum species. Their recommendation for defensible-space Zones 1 and 2 starts at eight. The score therefore falls short of that stated criterion, despite favorable listings elsewhere.
Oregon State includes monkshood among fire-resistant perennials for Willamette Valley conditions. A forestry guide from Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia describes Aconitum as relatively resistant to fire and notes a preference for moist soil with shade tolerance. FireSmart BC also gives it a favorable listing while retaining a request for more research.
Monkshood's preference for moist soil gives gardeners a growing condition to match alongside the fire guidance. Its favorable regional listings coexist with Colorado's higher score requirement for defensible-space planting and British Columbia's request for further research.
Form
perennial
Water need
high
Rated in
British Columbia; Colorado / Rocky Mountain Front Range; Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia; Oregon (Willamette Valley)
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Colorado State University Extension and the Colorado State Forest Service publish Fact Sheet 6.305 for Colorado's WUI and varied ecosystems. FireApproved exposes all 114 exact source owners at Colorado publication scope while retaining score, elevation, water, and Idaho-carrier lineage. Publication scope is not suitability for every Colorado site or zone.
Maryland Forest Service says the list contains plants that can be grown in Maryland and identifies Maryland natives. FireApproved publishes 169 exact source owners from the 180 printed rows; an unrepresentable form and duplicate-owner rows are not broadened. The list calls itself non-comprehensive and does not establish suitability for every Maryland site.
NJ; partial normalized coverage
New Jersey DEP publishes a state edition saying the listed plants can be grown in New Jersey and are relatively resistant to fire. Its same 180 printed taxon occurrences map to the 169 conservative owners already normalized for the template family. The list is non-comprehensive and does not establish suitability for every New Jersey site or override the Pinelands Commission's separate placement and fuel-break rules.
WV; partial normalized coverage · 2026-08-26
West Virginia Division of Forestry publishes a state edition saying the listed plants can be grown in West Virginia and are relatively resistant to fire. Its same 180 printed taxon occurrences map to the 169 conservative owners already normalized for the template family. The list is non-comprehensive and provides no comparative or site-specific rating.
Willamette Valley (OR footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2015-02-01
OSU Extension says EM 9103 highlights fire-resistant plants that thrive under Willamette Valley growing conditions. FireApproved publishes 172 exact owners only as valley context. The guide shares the PNW 590 lineage and is not a second independent vote or statewide site clearance.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in CO.
Native range
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness
Documented range 3–7.
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Plant hardiness evidence
These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA
Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value
is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping
statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.
3–7 explicit range · whole zone precision · source stated
Source taxon: Aconitum spp. · exact match.
Source location: Monkshood profile (PDF page 69).
Where its sources say to plant it
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Fire-resistant Landscape Plants for the Willamette Valley: Monkshood profile (PDF page 69) [osu-em-9103-profile] (with its recommendation)
Ignition-Resistant Landscape Plants: below the source's score-8 threshold for zones 1-2 [CSU defensible-space zone] (mid-scale rating)
Firewise Landscaping Plants: Herbaceous Annuals and Perennials [Maryland Firewise plant-form tables] (with its recommendation)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
Listed as Aconitum spp. (Monkshood). The source says listed species exhibit stronger resistance to ignition by wildfires. Source comments: Prefers moist soils. Shade tolerant
