A tall biennial or short-lived perennial of western, southern, and central Europe, long grown in cottage gardens and at woodland edges for its dramatic one-sided spikes of pendulous, funnel-shaped flowers. The first year forms a basal rosette of soft, wrinkled leaves; the second sends up a 2-to-5-foot spike of strawberry-pink, purple, or white tubular blooms spotted purple and white inside, from May into June. Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder notes the flowers are attractive to hummingbirds — and that the plant is highly poisonous, its leaves being the source of the heart drug digitalis.

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