Common Name: Comfrey
Description: Perennial herbs, with thickened roots.
Inflorescences terminal cymes, becoming paniculate. Flowers: calyx 5-parted to middle or below, with lobes unequal; corolla tubular-campanulate, with throat appendages 5, lanceolate & with papillate glands; limb 5-lobed, the lobes triangular to semiorbicular, margin dentate, apex sometimes revolute; stamens inserted at throat, not exserted; ovary 4-parted; style filiform, usually exserted, stigma capitate.
Nutlets (mericarps) ovoid, sometimes suboblique, usually granular-tuberculate, reticulate-wrinkled, rarely smooth; attachment scar at base, cupular, finely dentate at margin.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 20 species; Asia, Europe, widely cultivated; Australia: 1 species (Symphytum officinale L., naturalised in N.S.W. & Vic.), 1 hybrid Symphytum x uplandicum Nyman, sparingly naturalised in Vic. & Tas.).
Text by compiled (based on) Symphytum in Flora of China Vol. 16 (at www.eFloras.org)
Taxon concept: Australian Plant Census (accessed May 2017)
| One species in NSW: Symphytum officinale |
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