Creeping Comfrey - Symphytum grandiflorum

Description

Crinkled, elliptic to ovate, medium to dark green leaves grow to 7 inches long on decumbent stems but to only 2 inches long on flowering stems. Tubular, bell-like, creamy yellow to white flowers appear in drooping clusters.

Similar Species

There are other comfreys with yellow or cream flowers, or with stolons

Identification difficulty
ID checklist (your specimen should have all of these features)

With stolons. The only other stoloniferous comfrey keyed out in Stace (4th edn.) is S x hidcotense, a hybrid with S grandiflorum with blue or pink flowers. 

Recording advice

Photograph of whole plant, plus flowers; confirmation that plant is stoloniferous

Habitat

Usually encountered as an escape from cultivation which establishes in waste places, verges etc. often close to habitation.

When to see it

Flowering May and June.

Life History

Herbaceous perennial.

UK Status

Occasional but widespread in England and Wales.

VC55 Status

Uncommon in the wild in Leicestershire and Rutland. It was not recorded in the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire.

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2025+ | 2020-2024 | pre-2020

UK Map

Species profile

Common names
Creeping Comfrey
Species group:
Wildflowers
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Family:
Boraginaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
13
First record:
21/04/2012 (emsmith)
Last record:
28/04/2024 (Mabbett, Craig)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

10km squares with records

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