Toxicity and medicinal use - parts of the plant are toxic - see notes at page bottom. Seed: Flowers that are fertile produce 4 brownish-black nutlets that are nearly smooth, angled on two sides with a concave base. There are 5 stamens which cluster together at their tops around the single style. The flowers are perfect but frequently the ovary is sterile. The five lobe tips of the corolla are very short and spreading. The color is whitish with tones of purple to pink. The entire calyx is much shorter than the corolla which is tube shaped, about 1/2 inch long with a distinct waistband where the upper section is a little more inflated. The individual flowers have stalks with spreading hairs, leading to a green hairy calyx that has 5 lance-shaped pointed lobes. These cymes are usually in pairs and the curve is said to resemble a scorpion's tail. The inflorescence is a leafless curving branched cluster (a cyme) which is terminal and can also arise from the upper leaf axils. Margins are without teeth and the veins have a distinctive net pattern.

Leaves are thick and rough, fine hair on both surfaces with longer hair on the underside veins, the margins and the leaf stalks dark green surface on top, paler on the underside. The wings of the stalks continue down the stem creating the wing on the stem. Leaves decrease in size up the stem the very upper leaves may be stalkless. The lower basal leaves are broad and up to 8 inches long, ovate-lanceolate in shape with pointed tips and a base that tapers to a winged stalk. Comfrey is an introduced erect perennial herb, growing on hairy winged branching hollow stems from one to three+ feet high.

Comfrey symphytum officinale plants