Episode 27: Floral Footed Foxes & Cheesy Pickup Lines- Foxglove
Hello and welcome back to another episode of Rooted! This week we are digging into a slightly feral floral favorite, Foxglove!
Foxglove, or Digitalis Purpurea is native to Europe, but can now be found pretty much anywhere! It is the most famous member of the Plantaginaceae family, with most of it’ relatives looking extremely similar, but not being quite as famous.
It gets its name due to the fact that it’s unique purple flowers look a bit like the fingers of a glove, but it’s also called fairies cap or fairies fingers! Before it was commonly known as foxglove, we were all calling it Digitalis, which comes to us from famed german botanist Leonhart Fuchs in his 1542 publication, where he refers to them as digitalis, which literally translates to finger huts, but really means something closer to finger hat or thimble! This guy just has so many fun names!
It is easily identified because of it’s tall spiky form that is filled out with dozens of tube or finger-like purple to light pink flowers that have distinct spots- beckoning all kind of pollinators to crawl in side and rub their little butts all over them..or curl up for a quick nap. The plant itself can get up to about a foot tall or so, with a tight bunch of bright green leaves at the bottom of the stalk, which is covered in downy light gray hairs.
While foxglove flowers are pretty, and have plenty of uses, one important thing to note about this prolific perennial is that it’s highly toxic to humans, so it’s best to be careful when handling it or using them in cut flower bouquets! They can pop up pretty much anywhere, as they really aren’t too picky when it comes to soil, but they do prefer areas with recently disturbed soil and a decent amount of rainfall.
In Greek Mythology, Foxglove is sacred to the goddess Flora, who apparently used it to impregnant Hera with the god aries by rubbing it all over her body.
Meanwhile, in Scandinavian folklore, it’s said that fairies actually trained foxes to ring the “bells” of the foxglove plant to warn each other when hunters were near. There are also adorable illustrations of foxes wearing the flowers as tiny little shoes- they are heart melting, and on our instagram if you wanna see for yourself.
Ireland - fairies love it, so much so that it’s said a fairy has surely been anywhere you see a foxglove growing in the wild, and folks used to plant them in their gardens in hopes that the fairies would come to pay them a visit. In England it was even said to be bad luck to pick a foxglove, as it would make the fairies angry.
That didn’t stop folks from picking them to place in bouquets, as well as in babies' cribs or childrens shoes, as it was believed that doing so would protect the child from bewitchment, and later, scarlet fever…though no scientific evidence has ever supported that one.
While we don’t have any real proof of them being used to ward off scarlet fever, we DO have a bit of a whimsical tale to tell us how we ever figured out that foxglove could be used in medicine…
The story comes to us from welch folktale rooted in the 13th century figure rhiwallon, who was famously the doctor of the prince of south whales.
As a young man, Rhiwallon was walking by the lake when a mysterious mist rose from a magical golden boat. Rowing the boat was the most beautiful girl he has ever seen…gobsmacked, he tried to think of something witty or charming to say to her, but she vanished into the mist before he thought of something…this launched an absolute OBSESSION with her. He waited by the lake every night hoping to catch a glimpse of her…eventually he felt like he might not ever see her again, so he asked a wise old man in his village how to get her attention…and the answer? CHEESE… which like, GENIUS move if you ask me. Who in their right mind is turning down cheese?!
Anyway, it absolutely worked (shocking no one) and she agreed to not only go on a date, but basically committed to marrying him on the spot (as anyone would). As the years passed they had 3 sons, and after the last one grew up, Rhiwallon’s wife began rowing back in the lake. One day, she retired with a beautiful box adorned with jewels. She told Rhiwallon that if he would just hit her three times, she would be able to go home.
Not wanting to harm his wife or lose her forever, Rhiwallon refused to hit her. However, that next morning Rhiwallon was leaving for work after breakfast, and said goodbye to his wife the way he always did- he tapped her three times and leaned in to kiss her…but as he leaned in, she disappeared into the very mist she had appeared to him in all those years ago, leaving behind nothing but the box.
Eventually, her sons decided to open the box, where they found a fastidiously recorded list of all medicinal herbs, including foxglove!
Speaking of medicine, Foxglove has been used for everything from epilepsy to treating Heart Disease! As I mentioned earlier, foxglove is toxic to humans in all forms, so please don’t look to this as the hottest new addition to your medicine cabinet.
Foxglove’s leaves contains digoxin and digitoxin, which work to help strengthen the heart beat and even out blood pressure while improving circulation by blocking and disabling the sodium potassium ion pumps in heart cell membranes, causing a rise in concentration of sodium and calcium ions inside the cell. Increasing the concentration of these ions causes the heart to beat stronger and a little slower, helping to promote better blood flow. However, if the dose is too high, foxglove will cause the heart beat to not just slow, but stop all together.. But not before it causes nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, tremors, and heart attack.
Today, we actually still use synthetic versions of these chemicals in pharmaceuticals that treat various heart and cardiac diseases.
In non-lethal doses, digitalis can cause visual hallucinations, creating not only halos of light, but also giving everything a strangely yellow hue. This has led to all kinds of interesting scenarios over the years including everything from a traffic accident to van gogh’s signature style!
We believe that digitalis likely caused the shift to a more yellow palette, and some of the iconic imager in van gogh’s work due to the fact that he was painted holding foxglove multiple times, and likely would have been describing some kind of foxglove supplement to help treat some of his chronic health conditions.
Today, foxglove remains an important plant for pollinators, helps to fill out plenty of bouquets, and even still *technically* has a place in oour medicine cabinets. Whether they’ve been intentionally planted in your garden, or sprinkled along roadsides by the wind or fairies, I hope next time you see one you think about all the interesting stories associated with it!
Sources:
https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/common-foxglove-digitalis-purpurea/
Friso, G. (2023, July). Boost the Cardiovascular System . Plants to Improve Cardiovascular and Respiratory Health.
https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/common-foxglove-digitalis-purpurea/
