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foxglove

digitale jaune, small yellow foxglove, straw foxglove

Habit Herbs [shrubs], biennial or perennial.
Stems

erect, simple or branching from base, glabrous, glabrate, pilose, or villous.

50–80 cm, glabrous.

Leaves

basal and cauline, alternate, smaller distally;

petiole absent [present];

blade not fleshy, not leathery, margins entire or serrate to coarsely doubly serrate.

blade oblanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, 7–18 × 2–4 cm, margins serrate.

Inflorescences

terminal, racemes, often secund;

bracts present.

secund, glabrous;

bracts 5–15 mm.

Pedicels

present;

bracteoles usually absent.

spreading to slightly pendent, 3–4 mm, glabrous or sparsely pilose.

Flowers

bisexual;

sepals 5, distinct, narrowly triangular to lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, calyx ± bilaterally symmetric, campanulate;

corolla brown, yellow, pink to purple, or white, bilaterally symmetric, ± bilabiate, funnelform, tubular-funnelform, or globular to ovoid, tube base not spurred or gibbous, lobes 5, abaxial 3, adaxial 2;

stamens 4, adnate to corolla, didynamous, filaments glabrous or hairy;

staminode 0;

ovary 2-locular, placentation axile;

stigma 2-lobed or punctiform.

sepals lanceolate, 6–8 × 2–3 mm, glabrous or sparsely glandular;

corolla tube pale yellow, tubular-funnelform, 13–15 mm, throat 5–7 mm diam., abaxial lip pendent or spreading, pale yellow, lingulate, 4–5 mm.

Fruits

capsules, dehiscence septicidal, sometimes secondarily loculicidal.

Capsules

ovoid-conical, 8–12 mm, glabrous.

Seeds

20–60, brown to black, prismatic or cylindric to ovoid, wings absent.

brown, prismatic, 1 mm, reticulate-alveolate.

× = 28.

2n

= 56 (Europe).

Digitalis

Digitalis lutea

Phenology Flowering Jun–Jul.
Habitat Disturbed sites, roadsides.
Elevation 0–1000 m. (0–3300 ft.)
Distribution
from USDA
Europe; w Asia [Introduced in North America; introduced also nearly worldwide]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CT; MA; MD; MI; NH; NY; OH; PA; VT; BC; QC; Europe [Introduced in North America; introduced also in South America, Asia]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 22 (4 in the flora).

All species of Digitalis are poisonous, containing cardiac glycosides including digitoxin. In addition to the following species, D. ferruginea Linnaeus is sometimes found in cultivation in North America. It has yellow to yellow-brown corollas, like D. lanata, but the corolla tubes are elongate, not globular.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Digitalis lutea is easy to grow and is distinguished by its relatively small, tubular-funnelform flowers.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
1. Corolla tubes globular to ovoid; leaf blade margins entire.
D. lanata
1. Corolla tubes funnelform or tubular-funnelform; leaf blade margins serrate or serrate at least distally.
→ 2
2. Corolla tubes 13–15 mm; throats 5–7 mm diam.
D. lutea
2. Corolla tubes 25–60 mm; throats 14–25 mm diam.
→ 3
3. Corolla tubes pale yellow; leaf blade margins finely and evenly serrate distally.
D. grandiflora
3. Corolla tubes purple-pink to white; leaf blade margins coarsely serrate.
D. purpurea
Source FNA vol. 17, p. 258. Authors: Kerry A. Barringer, Neil A. Harriman†. FNA vol. 17, p. 259.
Parent taxa Plantaginaceae Plantaginaceae > Digitalis
Sibling taxa
D. grandiflora, D. lanata, D. purpurea
Subordinate taxa
D. grandiflora, D. lanata, D. lutea, D. purpurea
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 621. (1753): Gen Pl. ed. 5, 272. (1754) Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 622. (1753)
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