To support the ‘Bennel Wood – Woodland Laboratory’ project, we’ll be posting a series of blogs as we learn more about natural regeneration and the influence different treatments have on what grows on (and lives in!) a recently felled commercial site.
The third blog is by Sam Lomax, our D&G Woodlands administrator…
It had been a good couple of months since I’d last visited our Bennel ‘Woodland Laboratory’. As Administrator for D&G Woodlands, I’m usually in the office, keeping things on track. So it’s always a treat to find time for going out onsite.
Back in winter and early spring, Bennel had been looking quite bleak. So to see it at the start of June was something of a shock; the ground almost completely covered with growth that had sprung up since my previous visit.
I parked my car by the gate and started to walk along the entranceway, noting the variety of hedgerow plants edging the path. Nettles, cleavers and brambles all vied for position in amongst the various grasses. Some areas were carpeted by ferns, some by buttercups. The trees were all in leaf and a few were flowering, including the lacey mop heads of the elders, just waiting to be picked for fritters or fizz.
But the foxgloves. Wow, what a spot for foxgloves!
They were truly the star of the woodland on the day of my visit. I was sad to have missed the bluebells, but wading uphill through a sea of purple-pink foxgloves, all I could hear was buzzing; bees were going from flower to flower, seemingly not caring about the rain that was now – in typical Scottish summer fashion – heavily falling.
Foxgloves are an important source of pollen for bees and moths, especially those with long tongues such as Buff-Tailed Bumblebees, Garden Bumblebees and Common Carder Bees. They are the only food source of the Foxglove Pug Moth, the caterpillar of which feeds inside the flower and seals up the flower mouth, so is rarely seen.
Native to the UK, foxgloves (digitalis purpurea – literally ‘purple fingers’) grow especially well in acid soil, and are often the first wildflowers to appear on recently-felled sites, which would make sense at Bennel due its history as a cleared forestry plantation.
But beware! Foxgloves are not a forager’s friend; all parts of the plant are toxic and should never be eaten. Historically also known as ‘fairy fingers’ and ‘witches’ gloves’, it’s the name ‘dead man’s bells’ that gives an indication to be wary of the plant, as effects include vomiting, dizziness and death! This warning also applies to animals – so don’t let your dog nibble on foxgloves when out and about.
There are many myths attached to foxgloves, from being a hiding place for fairies, to the Roman goddess Juno with a foxglove pressed on her stomach to induce pregnancy, to even the name – in old English, ‘foxes glofa’ – gloves for foxes to wear, so they made no noise when walking.
A particularly intriguing story involves the post-impressionist painter Van Gogh; when admitted to an asylum, the painter was allegedly prescribed foxglove extract – his 1890 Portrait of Dr Gachet features the doctor holding a foxglove. One side-effect, known as xanthopsia, causes interference with colour perception and makes items appear yellow; some believe this accounts for Van Gogh’s ‘yellow period’.
It was 1785 when doctor and botanist William Withering published An Account of the Foxglove and Some of its Medical Uses, which is referenced as the first written account of how medically useful the foxglove might be. However, it was used (with sometimes fatal effect) back then to treat conditions such as epilepsy or dropsy; today it is used more successfully to treat heart conditions. Specifically, foxglove as a source of digitalis or digoxin – a cardiac glycoside. Doctors now understand that in controlled doses, digitalis can treat heart conditions including irregular heartbeat and heart failure.
Bennel Wood – where a walk up a hill can lead you from looking for any late-flowering bluebells to marveling at the wonders of foxgloves!
Sam Lomax, June 2025.