Wild Flowers Of Strathclyde Park
  
 

Comfrey
Symphytum tuberosum
of the Borage family
a perennial or biennial
80-150 cm high
blooms May-July
likes shady places, open woodland
can be seen throughout the Park.
This was by the Clyde.

   
 In medieval times Comfrey was used in bone setting, leading to the folk-names 'knitbone' and 'boneset'. A sludge, made from the roots of the plant was packed around the broken limb, and the bone "came together or in Latin, conferre, hence its common name. Herbalists used Comfrey to heal ruptures and draw splinters.
More recently Comfrey mixed with liquorice and sugar was used to make cough linctus. Comfrey can be boiled and eaten like spinach