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Digitalis ( or ) is a genus of about 20 species of herbaceous perennial plants, shrubs, and biennials, commonly called foxgloves. Digitalis is native to Europe, Western Asia, and northwestern Africa. The flowers are tubular in shape, produced on a tall spike, and vary in colour with species, from purple to pink, white, and yellow. The name derives from the Latin word for "finger". The genus was traditionally placed in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae, but phylogenetic research led taxonomists to move it to the Veronicaceae in 2001. More recent phylogenetic work has placed it in the much enlarged family Plantaginaceae. The best-known species is the common foxglove, Digitalis purpurea. This biennial is often grown as an ornamental plant due to its vivid flowers, which range in colour from various purple tints through pink and purely white. The flowers can also possess various marks and spottings. Other garden-worthy species include D. ferruginea, D. grandiflora, D. lutea, and D. parviflora. The term digitalis is also used for drug preparations that contain cardiac glycosides, particularly one called digoxin, extracted from various plants of this genus. Foxglove has medicinal uses but is also very toxic to humans and other animals, and consumption can even lead to death. Etymology The generic epithet Digitalis is from the Latin digitus (finger). Leonhart Fuchs first invented the name for this plant in his 1542 book De historia stirpium commentarii insignes (Notable comments on the history of plants), based upon the German vernacular name Fingerhut, which translates literally as 'finger hat', but actually means 'thimble'. The name is recorded in Old English as 'foxes glofe/glofa' or 'fox's glove'. Over time, folk myths obscured the literal origins of the name, insinuating that foxes wore the flowers on their paws to silence their movements as they stealthily hunted their prey. The woody hillsides where the foxes made their dens were often covered with the toxic flowers. Some of the more menacing names, such as "witch's glove", reference the toxicity of the plant. Henry Fox Talbot (1847) proposed 'folks' glove', where 'folk' means fairy. Similarly, R. C. A. Prior (1863) suggested an etymology of 'foxes-glew', meaning 'fairy music'. However, neither of these suggestions account for the Old English form foxes glofa. Taxonomy Species The Flora Europaea originally recognised a number of species now seen as synonyms of Digitalis purpurea, or others: D. dubia, D. leucophaea, D. micrantha and D. trojana. As of 2017, Plants of the World Online recognises the following 27 species (and a number of hybrids): Digitalis atlantica Pomel Digitalis canariensis L. Digitalis cariensis Boiss. ex Jaub. & Spach Digitalis cedretorum (Emb.) Maire Digitalis chalcantha (Svent. & O'Shan.) Albach, Bräuchler & Heubl Digitalis ciliata Trautv. Digitalis davisiana Heywood Digitalis ferruginea L. Digitalis fuscescens Waldst. & Kit. Digitalis grandiflora Mill. Digitalis ikarica (P.H.Davis) Strid Digitalis isabelliana (Webb) Linding. Digitalis laevigata Waldst. & Kit. Digitalis lamarckii Ivanina Digitalis lanata Ehrh. Digitalis lutea L. Digitalis mariana Boiss. Digitalis minor L. Digitalis nervosa Steud. & Hochst. ex Benth. Digitalis obscura L. Digitalis parviflora Jacq. Digitalis purpurea L. Digitalis sceptrum L.f. Digitalis subalpina Braun-Blanq. Digitalis thapsi L. Digitalis transiens Maire Digitalis viridiflora Lindl. Hybrids Digitalis × coutinhoi Samp. Digitalis × fulva Lindl. Digitalis × macedonica Heywood Digitalis × media Roth Digitalis × pelia Zerbst & Bocquet Digitalis × purpurascens Roth Digitalis × sibirica (Lindley) Werner had been considered a valid species since it was first described by the English botanist and gardener John Lindley in 1821, but it was considered a hybrid of D. grandiflora and D. laevigata by the German botanist Klaus Werner in 1960. Systematics The first full monograph regarding this genus was written by Lindley in 1821. He included two sections, a section Isoplexis including two species, and the main section Digitalis with three subsections, including 2Y species, a number of which are now seen as synonyms or hybrids. In the last full monograph of the genus in 1965, Werner classified the 19 recognised species in five sections (four species from Macaronesia were separated in the genus Isoplexis at the time): In the section Digitalis, along with the type species D. purpurea, four other species (as recognised as the time) were placed: D. thapsi, D. dubia, D. heywoodii and D. mariana. The monotypic section Frutescentes contained only D. obscura. The section Grandiflorae, which was also called section Macranthae by Vernon Hilton Heywood. It included, along with the type species D. grandiflora, also D. atlantica, D. ciliata and D. davisiana. Globiflorae included five species: D. laevigata, D. nervosa, D. ferruginea, D. cariensis and D. lanata. Tubiflorae included four species: D. subalpina, D. lutea, D. viridiflora and D. parviflora. In their 2000 book about Digitalis, Luckner and Wichtl continued to uphold Werner's classification of the 19 species, but molecular studies into the phylogeny of the genus published in 2004 found that although four of Werner's sections were supported by the genetics, the section Tubiflorae was polyphyletic, and that the species D. lutea and D. viridiflora should be placed in the section Grandiflorae. This study, as well as a number of other studies published around that time, reunited the genus Isoplexis with Digitalis, increasing the number of species to 23. Peter Hadland Davis, an expert on the flora of Turkey, had used a different circumscription than Werner in his works, and recognised eight species in the country. A 2016 molecular phylogenetic study into the relationships of the Turkish species in the section Globiflorae aimed to reconcile this discrepancy, finding that the classification as proposed by Davis was largely correct: Globiflorae contained as distinct species D. cariensis, D. ferruginea, D. lamarckii, D. lanata and D. nervosa, and D. trojana was subsumed at the infraspecific rank as D. lanata subsp. trojana. This study listed 23 species: D. transiens, D. cedretorum, D. ikarica and D. fuscescens were not mentioned. D. parviflora and D. subalpina were not tested in this study, but the 2004 study found these two species situated within the section Globiflorae. Ecology Larvae of the foxglove pug, a moth, consume the flowers of the common foxglove for food. Other species of Lepidoptera eat the leaves, including the lesser yellow underwing.The shape of the foxglove's flowers makes it especially attractive to long-tongued bees, such as the common carder bee. The bright flowers attract the bee, which lands on the lower lip of the bloom before climbing up the tube. This means that the bee is likely to drop any pollen it may have collected from other foxgloves, thereby facilitating propagation.... Discover the Foxglove Lee popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Foxglove Lee books.