Foxglove
Digitalis purpurea
Family Scrophulariaceae

Characteristics:
* Flowers purple, fuchsia, white, and sometimes yellow, shaped like elongated trumpet bells or the gloves that foxes might wear, spotted inside the blossom, drooping from one side of the stalk
* Leaves ovate, with long petioles.
* Height: To 4'.

Natural History:
* Flowers July - August.
* Habitat: Cultivated in gardens.
* Introduced; foxglove is native to Europe, northwestern Africa, and central Asia.

Connections!
* English doctor and botanist William Withering published "An Account of the Foxglove" in 1785. In it, he relates how ten years of research have proved the plant an effective diuretic, meaning it stimulates urination and drains harmful waste products from the body. Preparations of digitalis are used today to treat nearly every kind of heart disease.