Thursday, March 28, 2013

Digitalis purpurea



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

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.

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.

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.

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.

 "Mourn, little harebells, o'er the lea; Ye stately foxgloves fair to see! Ye woodbines, hanging bonnilie In scented bowers! Ye roses on your thorny tree The first o' flow'rs." Robert Burns January 25, 1759 - July 21, 1796.




References:

Botanical.com
Maude Grieve, A Modern Herbal, Harcourt, Brace, & Co., 1931; Dover edition, 1971

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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