Rough comfrey
Tall pink-to-blue comfrey of northeast Anatolia and the Caucasus; nectar-rich but long-tubed, so honey bees mostly use holes bitten by bumblebees.
- Nectar
- Medium
- Pollen
- Low
- Flowering
- JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
- Height
- 1-1.8 m
- Life cycle
- Perennial
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Rough comfrey is a bristly perennial reaching 1–1.8 metres that grows along damp woodland edges, in meadows and along streams in northeastern Anatolia, the Caucasus and Iran. Its bell-shaped flowers, in curled racemes, open from pink buds and turn blue. It is rich in nectar, but because the corolla tube is long, direct access is reserved for long-tongued bumblebees. Honey bees also take nectar through the holes that short-tongued bumblebees bite at the base of the flower, so the yield depends on local bumblebee activity.
Flowering
It flowers from May to July; cut plants may flower again in late summer.
Honey and pollen
It has no honey of its own; its pollen contribution is low. Like other members of its family it contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids.
Note for the beekeeper
It was taken to Europe as a fodder plant, where it hybridised with common comfrey to form the widespread Russian comfrey. In damp bee gardens it is a long-lived, maintenance-free source.