Between May and June it bears small bell-shaped flowers of various colours, typically cream, white, pink or purplish. The leaves on the stem have margins which extends down the stems. It is a perennial herb with a black, turnip-like root and large, hairy broad leaves. The hardy plant can grow to a height of 1–3 ft (0.3–0.9 m). Description and botany Ĭomfrey is a perennial plant found in moist grasslands in western Asia, Europe, and North America. Also the roots could be mashed then packed around a broken limb, when dried they formed a hardened 'plaster cast'. Its early common names, knitbone or boneset, reflect its historical use by poultices of leaves and roots to treat sprains, bruises or bone fractures. Over centuries, comfrey was cultivated in Asia, Europe, and the United Kingdom as a vegetable and herbal medicine. Internal or long-term topical use of comfrey is discouraged due to its strong potential to cause liver toxicity. The flowers are mostly visited by bumblebees. It occurs elsewhere, including North America, as an introduced species and sometimes a weed. It is locally frequent throughout Ireland and Britain on river banks and ditches. It is native to Europe, growing in damp, grassy places. Other English names include Quaker comfrey, cultivated comfrey, boneset, knitbone, consound, and slippery-root.

To differentiate it from other members of the genus Symphytum, this species is known as common comfrey or true comfrey. Along with thirty four other species of Symphytum, it is known as comfrey. Symphytum officinale is a perennial flowering plant in the family Boraginaceae.

Symphytum 200c uses