• Scientific Name: Symphytum officinale L.
• Ref: Sp. Pl.:136. 1753
• Synonyms:
  • Symphytum album Steud.
  • S. ambiguum Pau
  • S. besseri Zaver.
  • S. bohemicum F.W.Schmidt
  • S. commune Faegri
  • S. consolida Gueldenst.
  • S. elatum Tausch
  • S. majus Bubani
  • S. microcalyx Opiz
  • S. molle Janka
  • S. patens Sibth.
  • S. peregrinum Ledeb.
  • S. rakosiense (Soó) Pénzes
  • S. stenophyllum Beck
• English Common Name: common comfrey, true comfrey, boneset, knitbone, consound, slippery-root
• Chinese Common Name: 聚合草 jùhé∙cǎo, 友谊草 yǒuyì∙cǎo, 爱国草 àiguó∙cǎo
• Japanese Common Name: ヒレハリソウ [鰭玻璃草] hireharisō, コンフリー (comfrey) konfurī
• Family: Boraginaceae
• Genus: Symphytum
• Distribution: Forests. Fujian, Hebei, Liaoning, Taiwan, Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; Europe]
• Photo: Mt. Siguniang, Sichuan

Herbs forming tussocks, 30-90 cm tall, arcuate hispid, short strigose. Main roots purplish brown, stout. Stems erect or ascending, branched. Basal leaves long petiolate, lorate-lanceolate to ovate, 30-60 × 10-20 cm, apex acuminate; middle and upper stem leaves sessile, smaller, base decurrent. Inflorescences many flowered. Calyx parted nearly to base; lobes lanceolate, apex acuminate. Corolla light purple, purple-red, or yellowish white, 1.4-1.5 cm; throat appendages ca. 4 mm, not exserted beyond limb; lobes triangular, apex revolute. Filaments ca. 3 mm; lower part nearly as wide as anthers; anthers ca. 3.5 mm, apex with somewhat prominent connective. Ovary usually sterile, occasionally only 1 mericarp develops in a few flowers. Nutlets black, oblique ovoid or ovoid, 3-4 mm, smooth, shiny. Fl. May-Oct. 2n = 24 + 0-4b, 26, 32-45*, 46-48, 56. (Flora of China)