Digitalis purpurea - Elisabete Ferreira

NAME: Elisabete Ferreira

COUNTRY: Portugal

SOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook

TITLE: Digitalis purpurea

TECHNIQUE: Gouache, colored pencil and graphite.

YEAR: 2014

PUBLISHED: No

DESCRIPTION: Scientific name: Digitalis purpurea L. Common names: Foxglove and dedaleira in Portugal.

Life cycle: biennial. The first year growth remains in a basal rosette of leaves. Second year growth produces flowering stems, 91cm -181cm in height.

It is characterized by a thick, cylindrical, downy stem that reaches a height of up to 2 m. The leaves, are woolly, veined, and covered with white hairs on the underside. Flowers are tubular and bell-shaped, growing to 8 cm in length, purple to white.

Digitalis is native to the British Isles, western Europe, and parts of Africa, but is found today as an ornamental plant throughout the world and it´s cultivate for pharmaceutical use. Digitonin is a digitalis drug derived from D. purpurea. It is used in modern medicine to increase the force of the heart systolic contractions and prolong duration of the diastolic phase in congestive heart failure. However, the therapeutic dose is dangerously close to the lethal dose.

CATEGORY: Professional

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS: Yes. As the author of illustration I have given permission for it to be loaded on Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0