I have spent a lot of time in my life searching the woods and fields for plants, trees, etc. and learning how to identify them. It's my way of getting to know the neighbors.
I thought I knew all the wildflowers along the road and then this week, I saw this little gem in the woods 15 feet inside the treeline. Turns out there was a nice little colony of them. I don't know if they're new to the neighborhood, or just new to me.
At any rate, meet Cynoglossum virginiana, also called Wild Comfrey and Hound's Tongue.
Here's the thing though. It's definitely not a comfrey, which is Symphytum officinale.
Cynoglossum has fuzzy leaves like comfrey, but flowers more like a forget-me-not or borage.
The flowers have five petals and here they are a mix of blue and purple.
I saw references to them as medicinal plants and others as poisonous plants. Before you ingest any, make sure you do your research.
I look forward to getting to know this plant better and to seeing if I find it in other places, now that I know what I'm looking at.
