Despite the dreich morning, the foxgloves are a timely reminder that Spring is behind us and we are now at the beginning of high summer. This crop have taken over a cleared plantation on Round Hill near Gribdale, felled a couple of years ago.
Along with ox-eye daisies, foxgloves have the largest number of different names. It has been called: fairy fingers, fairy glove, fairy petticoats, fairy thimbles, witchesâ thimbles, bloody manâs fingers, dead manâs bells, flop-a-dock, poppy-dock, pop-guns, Thorâs-mantle, and the list goes on and on.
But it is the name foxglove that is most familiar to us. The ‘glove‘ part is understandable, but why a ‘fox‘ and not a rabbit or some other small mammal? This has been lost to history. Some say it’s a contraction of ‘folk‘ but the name derives from the Old English ‘foxes glofa‘, literally meaning “fox’s glove”1âFoxglove | Search Online Etymology Dictionary.â 2021. Etymonline.com <https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=foxglove&ref=searchbar_searchhint> [accessed 26 June 2021] â.
Foxgloves have been widely used in folk medicine. As an infusion of the leaves for sore throats and catarrh, as a compress for bruises and swellings, and as a diuretic for dropsy. However the dosage is critical, too much can be fatal. It slows and strengthens the heartbeat. Because of the modern heart drug digitalis is extracted from the plant, but nowadays the leaves of a European variety are imported. During the WW2 however, our native foxgloves, along with other plants such as belladonna, colchicum, dandelion roots, male fern root, stinging nettle, and sphagnum moss were collected in large quantities mainly by Women’s Institutes, 2Home Service. “Did You Hear That?” The Listener, vol. 27, no. 696, 14 May 1942, p. 617+. The Listener Historical Archive, 1929-1991, link-gale-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/apps/doc/GM2500085955/GDCS?u=ed_itw&sid=bookmark-GDCS&xid=e9747981. Accessed 26 June 2021..
General sources: [Ref042][Ref022]
- 1âFoxglove | Search Online Etymology Dictionary.â 2021. Etymonline.com <https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=foxglove&ref=searchbar_searchhint> [accessed 26 June 2021] â
- 2Home Service. “Did You Hear That?” The Listener, vol. 27, no. 696, 14 May 1942, p. 617+. The Listener Historical Archive, 1929-1991, link-gale-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/apps/doc/GM2500085955/GDCS?u=ed_itw&sid=bookmark-GDCS&xid=e9747981. Accessed 26 June 2021.
Leave a Reply