The Herbal Corner

Comfrey (Symphytum officinale) is a great plant for any garden.

Bees LOVE comfrey with it’s pretty pink to purple flowers that look like little dragons. It is a prolific plant and often just one plant is needed. What I affectionately call a Chop and Drop plant, it’s leaf mass is a wonderful mulch, providing nutrients and minerals to the soil. You can chop up it’s leaves and tuck them in and around any plants that need a “boost”. If you have a composter, this plant is a must. Once the flowers have bloomed, you can cut the plant back to 8”, chop up the leaves and add to your composter. You can often get 3 growth cycles per season and the plant loves it’s haircuts!

From a medicinal perspective, Comfrey has seen some changes over the years. The roots used to be used as a treatment for many things ranging from stomach disorders to joint and muscle pains, and it’s nickname was Knit-bone, thought to be beneficial in speeding up the healing of broken bones, but the plant roots contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids which cause liver damage, so internal ingestion is NOT recommended. Although shown in the past to cause rapid skin healing, current thought is not to use on any open wounds.

A sprained ankle or wrist? As long as there is no open cut, I often will “blanch” a leaf and wrap it around the sore spot like a poultice for 10-15 minutes a couple of times a day.

A joy for your garden, this is a wonderful plant that gives and gives and comes back every year.