Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Digitalis sceptrum; photograph (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2018-04-18

Digitalis sceptrum L.f.

Madeira foxglove

Plantaginaceae · Madeira

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Digitalis sceptrum L.f.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, L.fil.

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Digitalis sceptrum, photograph (c) Vítor Jorge, some rights reserved (CC BY)Digitalis sceptrum, photograph (c) Vítor Jorge, some rights reserved (CC BY)Digitalis sceptrum, photograph (c) Vítor Jorge, some rights reserved (CC BY)Digitalis sceptrum, photograph (c) Vítor Jorge, some rights reserved (CC BY)Digitalis sceptrum, photograph (c) Vítor Jorge, some rights reserved (CC BY)Digitalis sceptrum, photograph (c) Vítor Jorge, some rights reserved (CC BY) 40 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
10.5°C
Feb at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
22°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,426mm
11 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
14–47DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes October to March, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Digitalis sceptrum (common names; sceptre foxglove, bush foxglove or Madeiran foxglove) is a species of Digitalis from Madeira.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Digitalis sceptrum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Digitalis

Digitalis is a genus of about 20 species of herbaceous perennial plants, shrubs, and biennials, commonly called foxgloves.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Digitalis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,842 mm of 2,415 mm) falls in October to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 13.6 °C against a yearly mean of 15.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

Rain

2,415 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,842 mm of it October to March. Wettest month December at 405 mm, driest month July at 21 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,885 mm to 2,753 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,426 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,415 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 47 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 10.5 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 8.4 °C to 13.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 22.4 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 10.5 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, February, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Digitalis sceptrum through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 22 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 10.5 °C; 2,415 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 14–47RH 61–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 12 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C13 / 11–1613 / 11–1614 / 13–1714 / 13–1716 / 15–1819 / 19–2122 / 22–2322 / 22–2321 / 20–2318 / 17–2116 / 14–1914 / 12–17
Night °C11 / 9–1411 / 8–1311 / 9–1411 / 9–1413 / 11–1516 / 15–1718 / 18–1918 / 18–2017 / 16–2016 / 14–1813 / 11–1712 / 10–15
Rain mm283 / 218–323293 / 227–330246 / 195–283204 / 157–236120 / 94–13464 / 51–6921 / 17–2328 / 24–31136 / 109–149283 / 221–318332 / 254–387405 / 304–486
DLI16 / 15–2222 / 21–2830 / 29–3537 / 36–4042 / 42–4445 / 45–4647 / 46–4742 / 41–4433 / 32–3824 / 23–3018 / 16–2314 / 13–20
RH %64 / 63–6764 / 62–6762 / 59–6464 / 62–6764 / 62–6763 / 60–6761 / 55–6562 / 57–6564 / 62–6766 / 64–6865 / 63–6766 / 63–68

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 12% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 6.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 21.7 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 12 grid cells holding the 18 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1145:3257 (32.725, -17.125). Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 12 distinct grid cells holding 18 of the 18 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1145:3257 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 12% land and none of the 6 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 32.50_-16.875, lapse-corrected +623 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 751 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMadeira · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker32.775, -16.936 · in the densest population, 53 records (100% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 53 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 18 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 18 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 8 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 35 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 53 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Digitalis sceptrum, photograph 1did not loadDigitalis sceptrum, photograph 2did not loadDigitalis sceptrum, photograph 3did not loadDigitalis sceptrum, photograph 4did not loadDigitalis sceptrum, photograph 5did not loadDigitalis sceptrum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Vítor Jorge, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Geranium yeoi Geranium yeoi Greater herb robert Photo: CC BY, Ryan DonnellyMusschia wollastonii Musschia wollastonii Campanulaceae Photo: CC BY, Rachael KaiserArgyranthemum dissectum Argyranthemum dissectum Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Vítor JorgeDactylorhiza foliosa Dactylorhiza foliosa Richly-Leaved Dactylorhiza Photo: CC BY, Paul DufourGeranium palmatum Geranium palmatum Canary Island geranium Photo: CC BY, Rob FelixRuscus streptophyllus Ruscus streptophyllus Asparagaceae Photo: CC BY, Leonardo Ancillotto

Other Digitalis 20 in the reference

Digitalis canariensis Digitalis canariensis Canary Island Foxglove Photo: CC BY, Matthieu Le Goïc Digitalis cariensis Plantaginaceae Digitalis chalcantha Digitalis chalcantha Plantaginaceae Photo: CC BY, Vítor JorgeDigitalis ciliata Digitalis ciliata Plantaginaceae Photo: CC BY, Yuri Sofronov Digitalis davisiana Alanya Foxglove Digitalis ferruginea Digitalis ferruginea Rusty foxglove Photo: CC BY, Наталья ПикаловаDigitalis grandiflora Digitalis grandiflora Yellow foxglove Photo: CC BY-SA, xulescu_gDigitalis isabelliana Digitalis isabelliana Cresta de Gallo Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt StüberDigitalis laevigata Digitalis laevigata Plantaginaceae Photo: CC BY, Elias FreyhofDigitalis lamarckii Digitalis lamarckii Plantaginaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Ghislain118 (AD)…Digitalis lanata Digitalis lanata Grecian foxglove Photo: CC BY, Kostas ZontanosDigitalis lutea Digitalis lutea Straw foxglove Photo: CC BY, Demian Hiß all 21 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Callianassa sceptrum; Digitalis comosa; Digitalis macrostachya; Digitalis regalis; Isoplexis sceptrum. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Plantaginaceae
Described by
L.f.
Native to
Madeira
Wild records
53 in range · 18 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF's key 7674580 is Digitalis sceptrum L.fil.; the page links Kew's Digitalis sceptrum L.f., and the name is cited as Kew cites it
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 2 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 32.50_-16.875, lapse-corrected +623 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (12% land), so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 10 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…