Flora of North America species comparison

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Digitalis purpurea

Digitalis

common foxglove, digitale pourpre, foxglove, purple foxglove

foxglove
Habit Herbs [shrubs], biennial or perennial.
Stems

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

basal and cauline, alternate, smaller distally;

petiole absent [present];

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

terminal, racemes, often secund;

bracts present.
Pedicels

present;

bracteoles usually absent.
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.
Fruits

capsules, dehiscence septicidal, sometimes secondarily loculicidal.
Seeds

20–60, brown to black, prismatic or cylindric to ovoid, wings absent.
× = 28.

Digitalis purpurea

Digitalis
Distribution
from FNA
AR; CA; CO; CT; ID; MA; MD; ME; MI; MT; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OR; PA; UT; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; BC; NB; NF; NS; ON; QC; Europe [Introduced in North America; introduced also in Mexico, Central America, South America, Asia, Africa, Pacific Islands (New Zealand), Australia]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from USDA
Europe; w Asia [Introduced in North America; introduced also nearly worldwide]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Subspecies 5 (1 in the flora).

Digitalis purpurea was once used as a commercial source of digitalin, is widely cultivated, and has many cultivars. Some plants have been identified as European subspecies; all variability in the flora area appears to be from cultivars of subsp. purpurea. Digitalis ×mertonensis B. H. Buxton & C. D. Darlington (strawberry or giant foxglove) is a hybrid of D. purpurea with D. grandiflora that is sometimes cultivated.

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

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.)
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. 259. FNA vol. 17, p. 258. Authors: Kerry A. Barringer, Neil A. Harriman†.
Parent taxa Plantaginaceae > Digitalis Plantaginaceae
Sibling taxa
D. grandiflora, D. lanata, D. lutea
Subordinate taxa
D. purpurea subsp. purpurea
D. grandiflora, D. lanata, D. lutea, D. purpurea
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 621. (1753) Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 621. (1753): Gen Pl. ed. 5, 272. (1754)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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