Plant of the week: Foxglove

Everyone loves a foxglove; it's an image of summer – long, lazy afternoons; bees buzzing in the dappled shade; a time for rest and relaxation.

But there's more to Digitalis purpurea than meets the eye. This is a plant with presence, a wild and wonderful bloomer with an ability to find a home in the smallest space, and then to shoot upwards several feet to display its magnificent flower spike.

And nowadays, the common foxglove – as opposed to the biennial garden varieties which explode into a multitude of colour in late July and August – is on the increase. A decrease in the use of herbicides is encouraging the return of many wild flowers, and D purpurea is taking its chance. It loves shady spots, deciduous woodland areas and clearings in conifer forests, but it can grow in a crack in a wall,

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and its flowers – not always purple, despite the name – are now a common sight on many roadsides.

And the foxglove has another claim to fame – as a source of digitalis, a drug used to treat certain heart problems and as a sedative.

Bees love the foxglove's pollen – in fact, bees are far and away the major pollinators of the plant whose shape provides the ideal landing-platform for the insect.

YP MAG 15/5/10

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