Fairy Foxglove
Fairy Foxglove clump on a wall in Lancaster
Single plant on wall, Chedington, Dorset
Flowerhead, notched petals, long corolla tube
Leaves - some in rosette
Leaves in cultivated variety on soil
Erinus alpinus
Starflower, Alpine Balsam, Liver Balsam
Plantaginaceae
April to August
It is found mainly in the North and the South. It is thinly
scattered elsewhere.
See the BSBII distribution map for Fairy Foxglove
It is a neophyte, which has been grown in the UK since
the late 1730s and recognised in the wild since the
1860s.
It has become naturalised on rocky limestone and more
commonly, on walls, particularly in the North.
It may be on the increase.
Fairy Foxglove is an attractive, semi-evergreen, tufted,
perennial herb, growing up to 20cm.
Flowers are up to 1cm across, with a long petal tube
and notched, purple-rose-pink petals.
It spreads by seed.
Leaves are dark green, small, toothed, broad at the
tip and with hairy petioles.
On walls they tend to form rosettes.
Those growing in soil are longer and more branched.
Previous page: English Scurvygrass
Next page: False Oxlip
Fairy Foxglove clump on a wall in Lancaster
Single plant on wall, Chedington, Dorset
Flowerhead, notched petals, long corolla tube
Leaves - some in rosette
Leaves in cultivated variety on soil
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