Editing Digitalis (section)

{{Short description|Genus of flowering plants in the family Plantaginaceae}}
{{Redirect|Foxglove}}
{{About||the pharmaceutical|Digoxin|the foxglove-tree, which has similar-looking blooms|Paulownia tomentosa}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{Automatic taxobox
|image = Digitalis purpurea2.jpg
|image_caption = ''[[Digitalis purpurea]]'' (Common foxglove)
|taxon = Digitalis
|authority = [[Tourn.]] ex [[Carl Linnaeus|L.]]<ref name=PoWO>{{cite web |title=''Digitalis'' Tourn. ex L. |date=2017 |work=[[Plants of the World Online]] |publisher=[[Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew]] |url=http://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/30112738-2 |access-date=22 November 2020}}</ref>
|subdivision_ranks = Species
|subdivision = Over 20 species, see text:
|type_species = ''[[Digitalis purpurea]]'' [[L.]]<ref name = "Tropicos">Missouri Botanical Garden. (n.d.-p). ''Digitalis'' L. Tropicos. Retrieved February 19, 2025, from https://www.tropicos.org/name/40030988</ref>
}}
[[Image:Digitalis lutea 100705.jpg|thumb|right|upright|''[[Digitalis lutea]]'']]
[[File:Common-foxglove-285364 960 720.jpg|thumb|middle|Pink common foxglove with bee]]
[[File:Picture of a digitalis.jpg|thumb|''Digitalis'' blossoms and immature flowers]]

'''''Digitalis''''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|d|ɪ|dʒ|ᵻ|ˈ|t|eɪ|l|ᵻ|s}}<ref>''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]:'' "Digitalis"</ref> or {{IPAc-en|ˌ|d|ɪ|dʒ|ᵻ|ˈ|t|æ|l|ᵻ|s}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/digitalis |title=Digitalis |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=Dictionary.com }}</ref>) is a genus of about 20 species of herbaceous perennial plants, [[shrub]]s, and [[Biennial plant|biennials]], commonly called '''foxgloves'''.

''Digitalis'' is native to Europe, Western Asia, and northwestern Africa. The flowers are tubular in shape, produced on a tall spike, and vary in colour with species, from purple to pink, white, and yellow. The name derives from the Latin word for "finger".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Definition of DIGITALIS |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/digitalis |access-date=2024-05-03 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |language=en}}</ref> The genus was traditionally placed in the figwort family, [[Scrophulariaceae]], but [[phylogenetic]] research led taxonomists to move it to the [[Veronicaceae]] in 2001.<ref name="olmstead">{{Cite journal|last1=Olmstead |first1=R. G. |last2=de Pamphilis |first2=C. W. |last3=Wolfe |first3=A. D. |last4=Young |first4=N. D. |last5=Elisons |first5=W. J. |last6=Reeves |first6=P. A. |title=Disintegration of the Scrophulariaceae |journal=American Journal of Botany |volume=88 |issue=2 | pages = 348–361| year=2001 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280820806 |doi=10.2307/2657024 |pmid=11222255 |jstor=2657024 |access-date=28 November 2020|doi-access=free }}</ref> More recent phylogenetic work has placed it in the much enlarged family [[Plantaginaceae]].

The best-known species is the common foxglove, ''[[Digitalis purpurea]]''. This biennial is often grown as an ornamental plant due to its vivid flowers, which range in colour from various purple tints through pink and purely white. The flowers can also possess various marks and spottings. Other garden-worthy species include ''D. ferruginea'', ''D. grandiflora'', ''D. lutea'', and ''D. parviflora''.<ref name=AZEGP>{{cite book |editor-last= Brickell |editor-first=Christopher |title=The Royal Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants |year=2008 |page=377 |publisher=Dorling Kindersley |isbn=9781405332965}}</ref>

The term ''digitalis'' is also used for drug preparations that contain [[cardiac glycoside]]s, particularly one called [[digoxin]], extracted from various plants of this genus. Foxglove has medicinal uses but is also very toxic to humans and other mammals, such that consumption can cause serious illness or death.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Trust |first=Woodland |date=2020-01-07 |title=Foxglove and other poisonous plants |url=https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2020/07/uk-poisonous-plants/ |access-date=2024-06-01 |website=Woodland Trust |language=en-GB}}</ref>