Foxglove – art print

Foxglove
Digitalis purpurea

A4 art print
Digitally printed on Shetland Rives 300gsm stock

Illustration from The Physick Garden book

DESCRIPTION
The evocative and child-friendly name of this popular staple of European woodlands and hedgerows makes it hard to imagine that it was once seen as an herb of the underworld, but there should be no doubting its toxic power. Most of us will recall having been told not to touch foxgloves, and for good reason: ingesting any part of the plant can result in poisoning from deadly cardiac glycosides – and, as a result of this, early physicians and foragers tended to avoid the plant. Change came in the late eighteenth century, when the physician Dr William Withering went to print with his discovery (unearthed during treatments for dropsy) that the lance-like leaves of the foxglove had a direct effect on the human heart.