Common Name: Foxglove
Family: N.O. Scrophulariaceae; Biennial
Appearance: Spikes of tubular flowers with speckled throats. Blossoms colors include pink, red, purple, white, and yellow
Growing Season: Midsummer.
Location: Partial Shade. Moist well-drained soil. Avoid drought conditions.
Appearance: Foxglove's low-growing foliage is topped by 2- to 5-foot-tall flower spikes, depending on the variety. A biennials or short-lived perennial. Self-seeding.
Active Ingredient: digitalis, a potent heart medicine, and considered poisonous.
Latin: Digitalis makes the same connection: digitalis means “finger”.
Folklore
The alternate names for Foxglove give a
glimpse into how embedded this plant is in Faerie and magic folklore. The following titles are delightful
descriptions of how our ancestors and many people today refer to this herb still today: Fairy Petticoats, Fairy Thimbles, Fairy Fingers, Fairy Weed, Fox
Mittens, Witches Bells, Witches Thimbles, Folks Gloves, and Fox Bells are the most famous evocative descriptions.
The glove of the 'good folk' or faeries is the most well-know due to its favorite haunts being deep hollows and woody dells where the
Foxglove delights to grow. Legends in the north tell how bad faeries, don't you love them, gave these blossoms to the cunning fox that he might put them on his toes to soften his
tread when he prowled among the roosts of chickens in the farmer's yard. The earliest known form of the word is
the Anglo-Saxon 'foxes glofa' (the glove of the fox) from which it gets it's folk name
In Wales , the foxglove is called
Goblin's Gloves. Many practitioners still use foxglove in this way to
attract hobgoblins, who wear the long bells on their fingers as gloves in order to impart magical properties of blessing and cursing as needed by their benefactor.
Faerie activity can be easily seen by the mottling of the inside of the blossoms where faeries have placed
their fingers. One legend explains how these marks foretold of the baneful
juices secreted by the plant, which in Ireland gain it the popular name of
'Dead Man's Thimbles.'
Magic and the Underworld
Used as a charm or talisman, you can carry a piece of the foxglove flower for protection. I like to use it in ritual to commune with the underworld energies by placing it on my altar. However, be forewarned, the bare touch of the juice or the inhalation of the smoke ca be poisonous.
I am a devotee of Hekate. In one of the gardens of my last home I planted foxglove along the outside wall of our bedroom for protection due to the long-held fact that Foxglove
protects the occupants of the home from evil influences.
Care should be taken when picking foxglove for indoor use or arrangement. It has been long believed to anger the Faeries much like taking hawthorn branches when they flower into your home. Yet, there are those who believe that witches can handle both within their dwelling without retribution.
Care should be taken when picking foxglove for indoor use or arrangement. It has been long believed to anger the Faeries much like taking hawthorn branches when they flower into your home. Yet, there are those who believe that witches can handle both within their dwelling without retribution.
A chthonic herb, its guiding
influences comes from both the planet Saturn and Venus; In some forms of
Italian magic, foxglove grants the user a strong sexual urge and attraction. Used in fertility spells due to its abundance
of seeds, packets were carried or placed under the mattress to induce pregnancy.
Yet, foxglove is a baneful herb.
Yet, foxglove is a baneful herb.
Used as a charm or talisman, you can carry a piece of the foxglove flower for protection. I like to use it in ritual to commune with the underworld energies by placing it on my altar. However, be forewarned, the bare touch of the juice or the inhalation of the smoke ca be poisonous.
Medicinal:
Again, foxglove used in medicine is
still considered poisonous. The leaves of
plant contain cardiac stimulants, the most important of which bears the
name of the plant: digitalis.
It is interesting to note that it
is thought that the Picts may have been some of the original carriers of the
knowledge of foxglove’s healing powers, that knowledge may go even further
back than we realize.
Used as a bruised herb or expressed juice was helpful for scrofulous swellings when applied outwardly in the form of
an ointment, and the bruised
leaves were once used for the cleansing for old sores and ulcers.
Rembert Dodoens, born in Mechelen in 1530, began his studies in medicine, cosmography and geography at the University of Leuven, where he graduated in 1535 . In 1554 he would prescribe foxglove boiled in wine and used as an expectorant. However, there are no records of toxic reaction or premature death so we cannot be certain how well it worked.
Rembert Dodoens, born in Mechelen in 1530, began his studies in medicine, cosmography and geography at the University of Leuven, where he graduated in 1535 . In 1554 he would prescribe foxglove boiled in wine and used as an expectorant. However, there are no records of toxic reaction or premature death so we cannot be certain how well it worked.
Dr. William Withering ,17 March
1741 – 6 October 1799, is the famous English botanist, geologist, chemist, physician
and the discoverer of the active ingredient digitalis. His work is the
foundation of the use of digitalis today. He became known as “The
Flower of Physics” and a foxglove is carved on his tombstone.
Other Uses
Foxglove was used in general
throughout North Wales to darken the lines
engraved on the stone floors which were fashionable at the time, giving them a mosaic
appearance. Darkening crosses carved in the floor for protection by housewives was a common practice to keep the devil away.
In closing, I highly recommend growing Foxglove,
it brings bees to your garden, protection to your home and faeries to world.
References:
Botanical.com
Maude Grieve, A Modern
Herbal, Harcourt, Brace, & Co., 1931; Dover
Sybil Leek, Herbs, Medicine,
and Mysticism, Henry Regnery Co., 1975, pg. 142-143
Richard Le Strange, A History
of Herbal Plants, Arco Publishing Company, Inc., 1977
Magic and Medicine of Plants,
ed. Inge N. Dobelis, Reader’s Digest Association, Inc. 1986
Joseph E. Meyer, The
Herbalist, Meyerbooks, 1960, 1976
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