REDAVONS

It’s the season of the Foxglove and they are doing very well this year

Foxgloves are a woodland plant and thrive in semi shade. Believed to be so called because the marks on the inside of the flower appear to us like the paw print of  fox.

The native Foxglove is biennial, the life cycle is completed over two seasons, flowering the second year and producing 1000’s of seeds. Leave the rosette if you want to see the flower the following year.

The flowers on the spike flower sequentially and appear to travel up the spike enabling the foxglove to flower over a long period.  The flowers are designed to attract bees and if viewed under a uv light which is part of the spectrum that insects tend to use, there is a clear invitation on the petal to welcome the pollinator.

It’s Latin name, Digitalis purperea,  indicates the colour of the native flower and its traditional use in medicine. The heart drug digitalin was originally extracted from the foxglove.