Scientific name: Digitalis purpurea L.
Common name: Foxglove
Description
Habit: A densely hairy biennial or short-lived perennial, to 2 m high.
Stems: Erect, round, robust, unbranched.
Leaves: Alternate, without stipules, up to 30 cm long, undivided, oval, bluntly toothed; lower ones stalked, upper ones stalkless.
Flowers: Purple with dark spots inside, rarely white, zygomorphic, hermaphrodite, 4-5 cm long, drooping in a long terminal racemes; calyx of 5 sepals fused, with 5 pointed lobes; corolla of 5 petals fused into long and wide tube, 5 lobed; stamens 4, borne on corolla tube and concealed within it; ovary superior, 2-celled, style 1.
Fruits: A capsule.
Habitat: Roadside banks, heathy grassland, scrub-margin, streamsides, disturbed ground.Distribution: Frequent on silicaceous soils, absent from the limestone.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No