Digitalis Lanata - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The Plantaginaceae family, also known as the plantain family, is a family of flowering plants included in the order Lamiales. The Plantaginaceae family was not originally placed in the order Lamiales, but in the order Plantaginales. However, in recent years phylogenetic studies conducted by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group have indicated that it should be included in the order Lamiales. The original family name was Veronicaceae until 1789 when the family name became Plantaginaceae. This is the conserved name under the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN). ICBN does not consider family names before 1789 for conservation, as a result Veronicaceae is not eligible for conservation. Digitalis lanata has several other common names such as Grecian Foxglove and Woolly Foxglove. The name Digitalis comes from the Latin word digitus, which means finger. Digitalis was first recorded in the English language in 1664 in a published work. This genus name was chosen because the German name for foxglove is Fingerhut, which means finger hat (thimble). The glove portion of the name originates from the similarity of the foxglove blossoms to the fingers of a glove.