Digitalis |
Digitalis lutea |
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foxglove |
digitale jaune, small yellow foxglove, straw foxglove |
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Habit | Herbs [shrubs], biennial or perennial. | |||||||||||||
Stems | erect, simple or branching from base, glabrous, glabrate, pilose, or villous. |
50–80 cm, glabrous. |
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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. |
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Inflorescences | terminal, racemes, often secund; bracts present. |
secund, glabrous; bracts 5–15 mm. |
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Pedicels | present; bracteoles usually absent. |
spreading to slightly pendent, 3–4 mm, glabrous or sparsely pilose. |
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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. |
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Fruits | capsules, dehiscence septicidal, sometimes secondarily loculicidal. |
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Capsules | ovoid-conical, 8–12 mm, glabrous. |
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Seeds | 20–60, brown to black, prismatic or cylindric to ovoid, wings absent. |
brown, prismatic, 1 mm, reticulate-alveolate. |
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× = 28. | ||||||||||||||
2n | = 56 (Europe). |
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Digitalis |
Digitalis lutea |
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Phenology | Flowering Jun–Jul. | |||||||||||||
Habitat | Disturbed sites, roadsides. | |||||||||||||
Elevation | 0–1000 m. (0–3300 ft.) | |||||||||||||
Distribution |
Europe; w Asia [Introduced in North America; introduced also nearly worldwide] |
CT; MA; MD; MI; NH; NY; OH; PA; VT; BC; QC; Europe [Introduced in North America; introduced also in South America, Asia] |
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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.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 258. | FNA vol. 17, p. 259. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | ||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||
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Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 621. (1753): Gen Pl. ed. 5, 272. (1754) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 622. (1753) | ||||||||||||
Web links |