Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea)

Foxglove, Dulwich.

Most important to know about this plant is that every part of it is deadly poisonous and the smallest morsel ingested is likely to kill you. It is equally dangerous for live stock. Elements of it are used in advanced medicine to treat various heart conditions but it is not suitable for the amateur herbalist to use. The only use I’ve heard of for it is as toilet paper as the leaves are large and smooth but knowing about its extreme poisonous qualities I’m rather worried about the leaves breaking up and conveying their poison in suppository form. I don’t know if that’s likely but I should stick to dock leaves. The plant it's sometimes confused with is Common comfrey which I shall be blogging on tomorrow.  Foxglove may have as many as 80 single flowers that grow on one side, opening from bottom up. In the first year there is only a rosette of leaves viewable and in the second the tall stem grows up through the middle. There are twenty or so different species but this is the most common.    

Ox-eye Daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare)

Ox-eye Daisy - Barnes

I’m continuing to  blog about flowers for the next couple of days in honour of the Chelsea Flower Show all though the flowers I’m writing about are a little less cultivated than the plants that make up the CFS. Ox-eye is a common flower and looks like a giant daisy, growing up to 2 or 3 feet tall. You may recognize it as the tool in the game ‘he loves me, he loves me not.’ Not a game I’ve played yet but it’s on my To Do list. Now is the perfect time to see these in flower and they’ll be at their peak till the end of June. This plant maybe used as food and by Herbalist but has a bitter taste. Cows and pigs are said to avoid it when grazing but other livestock aren’t so fussy. It is also claimed that insects are less keen on it but I’ve not seen evidence of this. There seemed to be quite a lot flying round the abundant clumps on the banks around the Barnes Wetland Centre last Sunday. In fact years ago Ox-eye would often be mixed with the straw in livestock bedding to keep insects away. Herbalists have used this plant to aid various different respiratory disorders.