Hidcote Comfrey - Symphytum x hidcotense

Alternative names
Symphytum officinale x asperum x grandiflorum = S. 'Hidcote Blue'
Description

This comfrey is stoloniferous, and has flowers with a hint of blue and has pink buds.

Similar Species

Many other species, hybrids and varieties of comfrey with blue, pink or pale flowers

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

Usually blue flowers, flushed red/pink; other varieties have pink or pale flowers.  With stolons (the only other comfrey keyed in Stace (4th edn.) as stoloniferous is S x grandiflorum, with cream or pale yellow flowers).  Leaves usually petiolate (with stalks), and not decurrent, or weakly so. 

Recording advice

This can't be verified from the flowers alone; a photograph of the whole plant, including leaves and stems, and confirmation that the plant has stolons.

Habitat

Waste places and verges, often close to habitation as a garden escape.

When to see it

Flowering April and May.

Life History

Perennial.

UK Status

Most frequent in southern and western England.

VC55 Status

Status in Leicestershire and Rutland not known. 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: 2020+ | 2015-2019 | pre-2015

UK Map

Species profile

Common names
Hidcote Comfrey
Species group:
Wildflowers
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Family:
Boraginaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
11
First record:
04/04/2016 (Calow, Graham)
Last record:
12/04/2023 (Pugh, Dylan)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

10km squares with records

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