Wildflowers Found in Oregon

Comfrey

Symphytum officinale Description General: robust, taprooted perennial 30-120 cm tall, often with several clustered stems. Stem and flower cluster with spreading or bent back, stiff hairs. Leaves: large, the basal ones stalked, with ovate or lance-ovate blade mostly 15-30 cm long and 7-12 cm wide. Stem leaves alternate, gradually reduced and with shorter stalks but still ample, the upper commonly stalkless. Stem evidently winged by the conspicuously downward-extended bases of the leaves. Flowers: purple or dull blue, nodding, few to several in dense, isolated clusters at the end of side and top branches, the clusters based by a leaf pair. Calyx 5-7 mm long, cleft to below the middle, the lobes lanceolate, pointed, long-hairy. Corolla about 15 mm long, narrowly bell-shaped, the tube about as long as and sometimes almost as wide as the limb. Flowering time: May-August. Fruits: nutlets, brownish-black, slightly wrinkled, about 4 mm long.