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comfrey

comfrey

1 8.6
A plant with hairy leaves and bell shaped flowers used in herbal medicine and as groundcover
  • noun
  • /ˈkʌmfri/
  • Specialized
translation icon : consuelda
  • For a bold accent in the herb garden, try this new comfrey, 'Axminster Gold.'
  • comfrey leaf
  • comfrey root
  • comfrey tea

Examples

  • As with other comfreys, it will die back to the ground and go dormant in winter.

    Blog text (6)
  • In minor burns, applying fresh comfrey leaf or root to the area can be helpful.

  • I fed the mother a bowl of comfrey tea, and it brought the afterbirth down perfectly.

    Fiction book (1995)
  • All right, well, I'll fix your little flower for you, but first you got to go out and pick me some goldenseal, comfrey, valerian, and plantain.

  • Both the Working Hands and Healthy Feet are glycerin-based and also contain allantoin, an odorless, non-toxic, and non-allergenic skin protectant derived from the comfrey plant.

    Blog text (10)
  • She remembers how Uncle Sparrow quieted when Charise stirred fennel and comfrey to help women unlock female muscle gates for abortions.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • Research has shown that abrasions heal faster with topical comfrey relative to a placebo.

  • For stitches and swelling after childbirth, a comfrey-leaf poultice was great.

Synonyms

Symphytum officinale
vscomfrey
  • Specialized
9.9

A plant that lives for many years with small white, pink, or purple flowers, often called comfrey

is the everyday common term rather than the scientific label
common comfrey
vscomfrey
7.9

A plant that lives for many years with bell-shaped white, pink, or purple flowers and often spreads like a weed

is mainly used deliberately in gardens cooking and herbal treatments
cumfrey
vscomfrey
  • Archaic
9.9

A plant that lives for many years with large hairy leaves, used to cover shaded ground

is used more broadly for food and medicine rather than only groundcover
Symphytum
vscomfrey
  • Specialized
9.9

A plant like comfrey people use in gardens and herbal medicine to heal wounds and improve soil

is the single common plant often used for food medicine and groundcover

Compounds

A plant that lives for many years with bell-shaped white, pink, or purple flowers and often spreads like a weed

Surface Forms

comfrey singular
comfreys plural

Etymology

Comfrey is linked to the plant's old name symphytum, which means 'to grow together', because people used it to help bones heal. A helpful way to remember it is that comfrey was often called knitbone, so the name reminds us that the plant was used as a healing herb and as groundcover.