An
interesting curiosa is that the leaves were used in North Wales
at one time to darken the lines on stone floors. This gave them
a mosaic-like appearance, which was fashionable.
Sometimes, smaller flowering side-shoots develop, when the
flowers on the main spikes have been shed. They will also appear
if the main stem has been injured or cut off.
The lovely flowers are a favourite with honeybees and it makes
you admire the great evolutionary intelligence of plants to
observe that the design of the flowers has developed
specifically to facilitate pollination by the bees, including
the lower protruding lip, which serves as a landing platform.
Many other insects seek the protective shelter of the generously
proportioned flowers when it is cold and wet or on a chilly
night. Each flower lasts for about six days and as the lower
ones wither, more will open higher up.
Foxgloves produce an astounding number of seeds per plant. The
number can be as high as 1 - 2 million seeds from a single
plant.
Foxglove is a
common plant throughout the British Isles of woods, woody lanes,
roadsides, heaths dry grassy hillsides and rocks. It prefers
acid soils and does not like calcareous soils. It seems to
flourish best of all in siliceous soil. Given these basic
preferences in can grow both in loams as well as in places with
very little soil and generally seems to occur in the drier type
of habitats.
Name
Many children,
including myself, have had fun picking the flowers and sticking
one on each finger and then wriggling the fingers and trying to
scare each other.
It is thought that the scientific name 'Digitalis purpureae'
literally means: Purple thimble (from the Latin 'digitabulum'
meaning thimble. It was given to the plant in 1542 by the
famous German herbalist Leonhard Fuchs (after whom the
Fuchia has been named). In Germany the plant was know as Fingerhut
(literally 'finger-hat, which is the German word for a thimble).
"The Foxglove derives its common name from the shape of the
flowers resembling the finger of a glove. It was originally
Folks-glove - the glove of the 'good folk' or fairies, whose
favourite haunts were supposed to be in the deep hollows and
woody dells, where the Foxglove delights to grow. Folksglove is
one of its oldest names, and is mentioned in a list of plants in
the time of Edward III.
Its Norwegian name, Revbielde (Foxbell), is the only
foreign one that alludes to the Fox, though there is a northern
legend that bad fairies gave these blossoms to the fox that he
might put them on his toes to soften his tread when he prowled
among the roosts.
The earliest known form of the word is the Anglo-Saxon foxes
glova (the glove of the fox).
The mottlings of the Foxglove and the Cowslip, like the spots on
butterfly wings and on the tails of peacocks and pheasants, were
said to mark where the elves had placed their fingers, and one
legend ran that the marks on the Foxglove were a warning sign of
the baneful juices secreted by the plant, which in Ireland gain
it the popular name of 'Dead Man's Thimbles'. " (Mrs.
Grieve)
Foxglove as a medicine
Please note
that Foxglove is certainly not a herb for self-medication and
the information below is given for interest only. Foxglove is
a restricted herb by law, and Digitalis, the preparation made
from it, can only be prescribed by qualified medical doctors.
Foxglove has a cumulative action because some of its large
molecules cannot be excreted by the kidneys and are taken to
liver to be broken down. However, via the flow of bile from
the liver to the digestive system, some of the unbroken
molecules re-enter the bloodstream, which is why dosage (which
is very small in the first place) needs to be extremely
carefully monitored.
These days
Foxglove is universally famous as the supplier of Digitalis, an
important (and dangerous) drug for treating heart complaints.
The leaves harvested in the second year at the height of the
plant's flowering are generally used.
The plant was well known to ancient and older herbalists, for
example the 13th century Welsh physicians of Myddfai, but
presumably because of its potent poisonous nature, it was
employed chiefly as an external medicine. The bruised leaves,
expressed juice or an ointment made of the leaves was used for
scrofulous swellings, old sores and ulcers. Culpepper, a famous
English 16th century herbalist, reports that the Italians
use the fresh bruised leaves as a sort of 'plaster' on fresh
wounds to heal them. He also says "I am confident that an
ointment of it is one of the best remedies for a scabby
head..."
The plant entered the London Pharmacopoeia in 1650, but it only
gained fame in physician's circles after Dr. W Withering
published his "Account of the Foxglove" in
1785. In it, he describes 200 cases treated with the plant, most
of them suffering from 'Dropsy', an old-fashioned word for
oedema, which is of course often the result of serious heart
problems.
Here is Mrs.
Grieve's excellent and interesting account of the medicinal
actions and uses of the plant:
"Digitalis has been used from early times in heart cases.
It increases the activity of all forms of muscle tissue, but
more especially that of the heart and arterioles, the
all-important property of the drug being its action on the
circulation.
The first consequence of its absorption is a contraction of the
heart and arteries, causing a very high rise in blood pressure.
After the taking of a moderate dose, the pulse is markedly
slowed. Digitalis also causes an irregular pulse to become
regular. Added to the greater for of cardiac contraction is a
permanent tonic contraction of the organ, so that its internal
capacity is reduced, which is a beneficial effect in cases of
cardiac dilatation, and it improves the nutrition of the heart
by increasing the amount of blood.
In ordinary conditions it takes about twelve hours or more
before its effect on the heart muscle is appreciated, and it
must thus always be combined with other remedies to tide the
patient over this period and never be prescribed in large doses
at first, as some patients are unable to take it, the drug being
apt to cause considerable digestive disturbances, varying in
different cases. This action is probably due to to the Digitonin,
an undesirable constituent.
The action of the drug on the kidneys is of importance only
second to its action on the circulation. In small or moderate
doses, it is a powerful diuretic and a valuable remedy in
dropsy, especially when this is connected with affections of the
heart.
It has also been employed in the treatment of internal
haemorrhage, in inflammatory diseases, in delirium tremens, in
epilepsy, in acute mania and various other diseases, with real
or supposed benefits.
The action of Digitalis in all the forms in which it is
administered should be carefully watched, and when given over a
prolonged period it should be employed with caution, as it
liable to accumulate in the system and to manifest its presence
all at once by its poisonous action, indicated by the pulse
becoming irregular, the blood-pressure low and gastro-intestinal
irritation setting in. The constant use of Digitalis, also, by
increasing the activity of the heart, leads to hypertrophy of
that organ.
Digitalis is an excellent antidote in Aconite poisoning, given
as a hypodermic injection.
When Digitalis fails to act on the heart as desired, Lily of the
Valley may be substituted and will often be found of service.
In large doses, the action of Digitalis on the circulation will
cause various cerebral symptoms, such as seeing all objects
blue, and various other disturbances of the special senses. In
cases of poisoning by Digitalis, with a very slow and irregular
pulse, the administration of Atropine is generally all that is
necessary. In the more severe cases, with the very rapid
heart-beat, the stomach pump must be used, and drugs may be used
which depress and diminish the irritability of the heart, such
as chloral and chloroform."
Cultivation
Foxglove has often
been commercially cultivated as a source of medicinal digitalis,
as well as by ordinary householders for its good looks. The only
present day commercial plantations known to me are in the Dutch
wooded province of Gelderland.
Although the plants grows best when it seeds itself, it is
perfectly possible to raise a patch in your garden. The seeds
must be collected as soon as they are ripe. Because they are so
small, they can be mixed with some fine sand to ensure an even
distribution and they should be covered only with a very thin
layer of soil. If you grow the seeds in a tray, they can be
transplanted in damp weather and planted out 6 - 9 inches apart.
They will of course not blossom until the following year, but
may self-seed themselves thereafter if the habitat is suitable.
The shade of the flowers can vary, especially under cultivation
and occasionally white flowers are seen.
Mrs. Grieve informs us that for commercial herbal use 2 lbs of
seeds are used to the acre and one acre of good soil will grow
at least two tons of the Foxglove foliage, producing roughly
half a ton of dries leaves. The flowers of the true medicinal
type must be pure, dull pink or magenta, not pale-coloured,
white or spotted externally. Plants in sunny situations produce
a higher amount of the active ingredients than those grown in
the shade.
Back
to Flowers Index
|
