Foxglove

Below is a shot of foxglove, or Digitalis purpurea, at the NYBG.

Foxglove's an amazing, regal spring biennial. Biennials, unlike the more common perennials and annuals, need two seasons to complete its life cycle (another popular biennial is the common pansy).

If the name Digitalis sounds familiar, you may be thinking of the heart drug digitalis. Digitalis contains cardiac glycoside digitoxin, which is used to treat congestive heart failure -- it essentially makes the heart beat stronger and faster. However, if you have a bad ticker, don't go gnawing on the plant as-is. Foxglove is highly toxic when taken in anything other than the smallest of quantities, or in its basic form.

Digitalis obviously refers to one's digits, presumably because the individual blossoms would fit over one's finger easily enough. This also accounts for the less-common name, witch's bells, as witches wore these blossoms as little finger-gloves (I suspect the poisonous nature of this plant could have something to do with witches using it, too). Finally, it's not a long shot to guess that the common name foxglove refers to the blossoms easily fitting over a fox's paws as well.

Foxglove used to belong in the Scrophulariaceae (snapdragon or figwort) family, but has recently been moved to the Plantaginaceae (plantain) family. Most people with a lawn probably shudder at the word plantain, as Plantago a tenacious lawn weed. Similarly, in areas out west, foxglove is an invasive wildflower.

An aside: The plantain family does not include the tropical banana-like plantain, Musa. Musa, incidentally, is also the genus name for mouse. The fact that these plants share the common name plantain is a great example of how common names can get pretty confusing, pretty fast.

Giant Onion

Giant onion, or Allium giganteum, in the New York Botanical Garden:


If you're a regular reader, you don't need to be told that the large purple globe is actually a sum of many smaller flowers, all of which radiate from the same spot on the top of the stem.

Giant onion, as you can guess, is a bulb and it doesn't look much different from the onion bulbs you'd buy at a grocery store.

I can't get enough of this funky perennial en masse, along this path. It provides such a great contrast to the verdant, spring green of the lawn.

Here it is again, playfully popping out of a boxwood parterre:


Just. love. it. So fun.

Allium is the Latin name for garlic, and indeed, giant onion shares its genus with regular garlic, which is Allium sativum.

Fritillaria imperialis

Crown imperials (or Fritillaria imperialis) are a rare sight in Manhattan. This one was growing in Battery Park, blooming this week.


Fritillaries are such great, weird plants. They're bulbs, and I love that they have these pineapple-like crowns on top of the blossoms. Native to Turkey and the near east, these bulbs have been cultivated longer than most other flowers.


This species is Fritillaria imperialis, but the genus name (latin for 'dice box') refers to Fritillaria meleagris, or the checkered fritillary.

Fothergilla

Fothergilla species are in bloom right now, and my guess is that the ones below, blooming in Teardrop Park, are Fothergilla x gardenii, as that's the smaller, dwarf species.


Any type of Fothergilla is pretty cool though, due to the unusual flowers. The white spikes are the stamens and there are no petals on the flowers whatsoever.



Fothergilla is native to the southeast United States, is relatively deer resistant and has very few diseases. I have also seen it in Union Square and Tompkins Square Parks, so that demonstrates the plant's fortitude.


It is in the Hamamelidaceae family, and is thus cousins with witch hazel. It would be easy to guess this as the leaves on Fothergilla have that same distinctive spatula-shape, only smaller.