Birmingham

Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea)

What do Foxgloves and foxes have in common? Perhaps they like the same sorts of places – woodland glades, among bracken or rough banks. Both are thoroughly at home in cities too, including the parks and industrial wastelands of Birmingham's ‘endless village'.

William Withering the discoverer of the heart drug Digitalis - originally taken from the Foxglove - was Chief Physician at the Birmingham General Hosptial from 1775.

Habitat: woodland clearings, heaths and banks. Flowers: June-September.
Image © Bob Gibbons/Natural Image