Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Boraginales > Boraginaceae > Symphytum > Symphytum tuberosum

Symphytum tuberosum (tuberous comfrey)

Synonyms: Symphytum mediterraneum; Symphytum tuberosum mediterraneum

Wikipedia Abstract

Symphytum tuberosum, the tuberous comfrey or in Gaelic meacan dubh cnapach, is a species of Symphytum in the Boraginaceae family.
View Wikipedia Record: Symphytum tuberosum

Infraspecies

Symphytum tuberosum angustifolium
Symphytum tuberosum tuberosum (Tuberous comfrey)

Attributes

Edible [1]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [1]  Hermaphrodite
Hazards [1]  No reports of toxicity have been seen for this species, but the following reports have been seen for S. officinale. This plant contains small quantities of a toxic alkaloid which can have a cumulative effect upon the liver. Largest concentrations are found in the roots, leaves contain higher quantities of the alkaloid as they grow older and young leaves contain almost none. Most people would have to consume very large quantities of the plant in order to do any harm, though anyone with liver problems should obviously be more cautious. In general, the health-promoting properties of the plant probably far outweigh any possible disbenefits, especially if only the younger leaves are used.
Lifespan [1]  Perennial
Pollinators [1]  Bees
Structure [3]  Herb
Usage [1]  A good, and sometimes rampant, ground cover plant for a shady border or woodland.
Height [1]  24 inches (0.6 m)
Width [1]  24 inches (0.6 m)
Light Preference [2]  Mixed Sun/Shade
Soil Acidity [2]  Moderate Acid
Soil Fertility [2]  Intermediate
Soil Moisture [2]  Moist
View Plants For A Future Record : Symphytum tuberosum

Protected Areas

Predators

Ethmia funerella[4]
Ethmia quadrillella[5]
Longitarsus anchusae <Unverified Name>[5]

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Entyloma serotinum[6]
Golovinomyces cynoglossi[6]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 2ECOFACT 2a Technical Annex - Ellenberg’s indicator values for British Plants, M O Hill, J O Mountford, D B Roy & R G H Bunce (1999)
♦ 3Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 4HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 5Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 6Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0