Flora of North America species comparison

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Digitalis purpurea

Digitalis lanata

common foxglove, digitale pourpre, foxglove, purple foxglove

digitale laineuse, Grecian foxglove, woolly foxglove
Stems

30–100 cm, glabrous or glabrate.
Leaves

blade lanceolate to oblanceolate, 5–15 × 1–2 cm, margins entire.
Inflorescences

not secund, villous;

bracts 15–30 mm.
Pedicels

spreading, 1–4 mm, villous.
Flowers

sepals narrowly lanceolate to narrowly triangular, 8–10 × 1.5–2 mm, villous;

corolla tube yellow to yellow-brown with red to brown veins, globular to ovoid, 10–15 mm, throat 10–15 mm diam., abaxial lip strongly curved, white, lingulate, 7–15 mm.
Capsules

ovoid-conical, 10–15 mm, villous.
Seeds

brown to black, prismatic, 1 mm, finely reticulate-alveolate.
2n

= 56 (Asia).

Digitalis purpurea

Digitalis lanata
Phenology Flowering Jun–Jul.
Habitat Disturbed sites, roadsides, abandoned lots.
Elevation 0–1000 m. (0–3300 ft.)
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 FNA
CT; IN; KS; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; NE; NH; NJ; NY; OH; PA; VT; WI; WV; ON; QC; Eurasia [Introduced in North America; introduced also in South America, elsewhere in Europe, elsewhere in Asia, Africa]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[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.)

Plants of Digitalis lanata are the principal source of the drug digitalin. Digitalis lanata can be confused with D. leucophaea Sibthorp & Smith, which is rarely cultivated and has linear bracts and smaller flowers.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 17, p. 259. FNA vol. 17, p. 259.
Parent taxa Plantaginaceae > Digitalis Plantaginaceae > Digitalis
Sibling taxa
D. grandiflora, D. lanata, D. lutea
D. grandiflora, D. lutea, D. purpurea
Subordinate taxa
D. purpurea subsp. purpurea
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 621. (1753) Ehrhart: Beitr. Naturk. 7: 152. (1792)
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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