115. Common Foxglove

Beautiful, tall, the bees love them...and they are exotic. This is one of those alien European species that we let live where it grows in somewhat disturbed areas. Digitalis purpurea is a source of digitoxin, a glycoside that has been used as a heart stimulant since 1785; HOWEVER it is toxic and self medication is definitely a no no. The medical uses and early research are outlined here: http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/plants-fungi/digitalis-purpurea-common-foxglove   

Common foxgloves show up regularly in folk tales as well, providing clothing for the faeries and gloves for foxes so they can creep into the chicken coop.

 
The Miracle of the Bees and the Foxgloves
BY ANNE STEVENSON
Because hairs on their speckled daybeds baffle the little bees,
foxgloves come out to advertise for rich bumbling hummers,
who crawl into their tunnels-of-delight with drunken ease
(see Darwin’s chapters on his foxglove summers)
plunging over heckles caked with sex-appealing stuff
to sip from every hooker its intoxicating liquor
and stop it propagating in a corner with itself.

And this is how the foxflower keeps its sex life in order.
Two anthers—adolescent, in a hurry to dehisce--
let fly too soon, so pollen lies in drifts around the floor.  
Along swims bumbler bee and makes an undercoat of this,
reverses, exits, lets it fall by accident next door.  
So ripeness climbs the bells of Digitalis, flower by flower,
undistracted by a Mind, or a Design, or by desire.