🌸 Flower
ANX-FLOWER-0000042
Common Foxglove
Digitalis purpurea
Common Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), a biennial or short-lived perennial of the Plantaginaceae family, produces tall one-sided spires of tubular purple bell-shaped flowers and is the historical source of the cardiac drug digoxin.
Log in to request a quotation- Family
- Plantaginaceae
- Plant type
- Biennial or short-lived perennial
- Bloom color
- Purple (also pink, white, apricot in cultivars)
- Bloom season
- Early to mid-summer
- Mature height
- 100-180 cm cm
- Sun requirements
- Partial shade to full sun
- Fragrance
- Unscented
- Native region
- Western and southwestern Europe
Growing
Growing Conditions
- Water requirements
- Moderate; prefers humus-rich, moist but well-drained soil.
- Climate requirements
- Fully hardy (RHS H6); tolerates almost any climate except very wet or very dry sites.
- Soil types
- Humus-rich soil; tolerant of most soil types except waterlogged or very dry.
- Propagation method
- Seed
Ecology
Pollinators & Toxicity
- Pollinator value
- Long tubular flowers are especially attractive to bumblebees.
- Toxicity
- Toxic to dogs, cats, and horses via cardiac glycosides, causing arrhythmias, vomiting, diarrhea, weakness, and potentially fatal cardiac failure (ASPCA); all plant parts are also toxic to humans, with as few as two to three dried leaves representing a potentially fatal dose.
Use
Uses & Economic Importance
- Uses
- Cottage and woodland garden borders, naturalistic planting; botanical source of the cardiac medications digoxin and digitoxin
- Economic importance
- Historically and currently significant as the botanical source of digoxin/digitoxin, cardiac glycoside drugs used to treat heart failure and arrhythmias.
Trade
Marketplace
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