Digitalis purpurea in Redwood National Park, California, USA.
My Flora-posts have been on hold for quite a while; a kind of
extended hibernation. One reason is my laziness (these posts take much
more time than short
1peeks for example), but I have also taken much
less flower photographs during last year. This is not a good
excuse because I have plenty of older photographs that fit the
Flora topic, but
it reflects my photographic interests at the moment. However, every
year when spring approaches, I become sensitive and interested in
flowers, which manifests itself in my urge to photographs flowers and to sow flower seeds for the coming spring and summer.
Last year, I
particularly envisioned photographing flowers during our long
summer holiday in California, Oregon and Washington State - however, I
became engaged in a different theme and captured only few flowers. One
of these exceptions was the purple foxglove,
Digitalis purpurea, shown above. Even though we
saw foxglove repeatedly along our journey, we learned that it is
actually not an indigenous species in the United States at all. The
foxglove is native to Europe and is considered an invasive and noxious plant in the US. The Latin name of the foxglove,
Digitalis, refers to the finger-like shape of its flowers and the genus
Digitalis belongs to the family of the Scrophulariaceae (figwort family). This group of plants bears the German name "Rachenblütler", which, literally translated, means "throat flowers". In my opinion this is a fitting name for these beautiful flowers.
The foxglove is an extraordinary and important plant in different aspects. Its deceivingly beautiful flowers and also the seeds are highly poisonous and cause nausea or even hear failure and death. However, at the right dose the active compounds of
Digitalis, the cardiac glycosides known as digitoxin and digoxin, support heart function and are used in medicine. Furthermore, the compound digoxigenin (DIG), also found in
Digitalis species, is widely used in molecular biology laboratories to detect DNA and RNA. Finally, the foxglove is a popular ornamental and the cultivated varieties with flowers in all kinds of colors are much more common than the rather rare wild species.
The photograph above switches between two versions - one focused on the front of the flower and a second photograph with the focus inside the flower. I think this is an illustrative example of how a subject changes by moving the focal plane just a tiny little bit. If you want to look at the original photographs, have a look
HERE. I hope you enjoy!
