Species - Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea)
Location - Various
Grid Ref - Various
Foxglove is a common plant that can be found in most places in the UK and seen at road sides and hedgerows. Also known as Dragon's mouth, Bunny rabbits, Floppy dock, Tod-tails, Bunch of grapes, Bloody man's fingers, Deadman's thimbles and Fairy bells.
Each plant can grow up to 2 metres tall, and typically has about 80 bells hanging from its stem. I though the Rosebay Willowherb was an impressive coloniser with over 80,000 seeds, but the Foxglove beats that hands down with each plant having over a million seeds.
Despite all parts of the plant being highly poisonous to humans, this plant is favoured by bees who climb right into the bells to get to the pollen.
The blooms are heliotropic and they follow the light. During old times, when fairies were strongly believed in, the plant was said to be moving towards any fairy person that could be passing by.
