Image of yellow foxglove

Description:

Slo.: velecvetni naprstec - syn.: Digitals ambigua Murr. - Habitat: mountain grassland with tall herbs, next to the dirt mountain road; moderately steep mountain slope, south-southwest aspect; calcareous, skeletal ground; full sun, relatively warm and dry place; elevation 1.340 m (4.400 feet); average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 3-5 deg C, alpine phytogeographical region. Substratum: soil among stones and rocks. Comment: Digitalis grandiflora is a beautiful, stout mountain flower, which usually grows in groups of several flowering stalks. One can find three species of genus Digitals growing in Slovenia. Digitalis grandiflora is the most common and growing predominantly in mountain habitats. It is a pale or light yellow flowering plant, brownish inside the flower bells. The second one is Digitalis leavigata. It has yellow flowers with purplish veins or patches. It is a low-land plant and found in warmer regions of Slovenia and not present in the Alpine phytogeographical region. The third one is mostly a garden plant of several forms - Digitalis purpurea - with red, scarlet, purple or other color flowers. It sometimes escapes from gardens in the wild. Some of the plants at the place of this observation are very unusual. Habitus, habit and the shape of the flowers clearly speaks in favor of Digitalis grandiflora (such are also normally colored plants growing next to the unusual ones) but not the coloration of the flowers. Their flower bells are beautifully decorated by purplish base and net of veins. One could eventually think on some kind of hybrid. But other two species with red in their flowers are far, far away of this totally wild mountain place. So, hybridization seems extremely improbable. Certainly an interesting mutation and a rare find! Ref.: (1) M.A. Fischer, W. Adler, K. Oswald, Exkursionsflora fr sterreich, Liechtenstein und Sdtirol, LO Landesmuseen, Linz, Austria (2005), p 728. (2) D. Aeschimann, K. Lauber, D.M. Moser, J.P. Theurillat, Flora Alpina, Vol. 2., Haupt (2004), p 212. (3) A. Martini et all., Mala Flora Slovenije (Flora of Slovenia - Key) (in Slovenian), Tehnina Zaloba Slovenije (2007), p 554. (4) K. Lauber and G. Wagner, Flora Helvetica, 5. Auflage, Haupt (2012), p 878.