Scientific Name: Digitalis purpurea
Actually Fun
Fact (but only if your heart is failing): Foxglove, while extremely poisonous
and irritating to most people, can be synthesized into the drug digitalis,
which helps treat congestive heart failure by the same method the plant uses to
damage healthy cardiovascular symptoms. Digitalis increases the strength of
each heartbeat, which is dangerous and potentially deadly to most people but is
helpful to patients with a weak heartbeat.
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Plantae
Phylum:
Magnoliophyta
Class:
Magnoliopsida
Order: Lamiales
Family:
Scrophulariaceae
Genus: Digitalis
Species: D.
purpurea
Description:
Foxglove is a low-growing biennial prized for its beautiful towering branches
of white and pale violet flowers, which sprout over rosettes of hairy ovoid
leaves. This organism is highly poisonous, causing rashes and blisters if
touched. Any part of the plant if ingested can cause stomachache, nausea,
delirium, tremors, convulsions, headache, and disruption of the heart.
Environment:
Foxglove is native to Europe , though it has been
introduced to the Americas Pacific Northwest . Foxglove prefers rich
loam soil but can survive in less nutritious earth as well and is often found
in rocky terrain or even in crumbling stone walls. This organism generally
favors shady woodland environments.
Reproduction
& Development: Foxglove’s famed blossoms live for approximately six days
after sprouting from two- to five-foot-tall green stems in the plant’s second
year of life. After this final second year, the plant dies, but not before
being pollinated and producing new seeds for offspring.
Nutrition:
Foxglove is a vascular plant and draws nutrients and water from the soil in
which it grows. The leaves of the plant perform photosynthesis and draw energy
from the sun.
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