Digitalis
Channel: all the knowledge of the universe PRINCIPIA
Date: 2021-12-11

Digitalis, by Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8129 / CC BY SA 3.0

#Digitalis
#Plantaginaceae_genera
#Antiarrhythmic_agents
#Medicinal_plants
Digitalis lutea Pink common foxglove with bee Digitalis （/ˌdɪdʒɪˈteɪlɪs/ or /ˌdɪdʒɪˈtælɪs/） is a genus of about 20 species of herbaceous perennial plants, shrubs, and 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 scientific name means "finger".
The genus was traditionally placed in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae, but phylogenetic research led taxonomists to move it to the Veronicaceae in 2001.
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.
The term digitalis is also used for drug preparations that contain cardiac glycosides, particularly one called digoxin, extracted from various plants of this genus.
Foxglove has medicinal uses but is also very toxic to humans and other animals, and consumption can even lead to death.
Hendrik Goltzius, A Foxglove in Bloom, 1592, National Gallery of Art, NGA 94900 The generic epithet Digitalis is from the Latin digitus （finger）.
Leonhart Fuchs first invented the name for this plant in his 1542 book De historia stirpium commentarii insignes, based upon the German vernacular name Fingerhut, which translates literally as 'finger hat', but actually means 'thimble'.
The name is recorded in Old English as 'foxes glofe/glofa' or 'fox's glove'.
Over time, folk myths obscured t...