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The central stem of giant bur-reed produces an inflorescence at its tip with 1-6 female flowers in the lower parts of each branch of the inflorescence and up to 20 male flowers in the upper parts. (Male and female flowers are separate and distinct.) Male (staminate) flowerheads look like a fireworks-burst of white filaments and yellow-brown anthers; individual florets are densely packed, each with five stamens with white filaments and a yellow to brown anther. The female flowerheads are greenish and "prickly" with prominent green cones (the female florets) covering the surface; each pistillate floret has a basal green ovary covered with scale-like tepals with dark tips and an apical white style bearing two white stigmas. Giant bur-reed is wind pollinated. In fruiting flowerheads, the stigmas turn dark and wither but do not drop off; the florets elongate and widen, turning brown as the fruits on the seedhead ripen. The fruit is a brown seed 5-10 mm long and nearly as wide, shaped like an inverted pyramid that abruptly narrows to a 2-4 mm long apical beak (the style remnant). Giant bur-reed is superficially sedge-like but instead is more closely related to cattails. Giant bur-reed prefers wet conditions (up to a foot of water) with minimal waves and gentle currents.

Symphytum

Sparganium eurycarpum

giant bur-reed [Blooms: May-Jul]

The inflorescences of common comfrey are nodding cymes or racemes of flowers that arise from the tips of the stems and the lateral branches. The flowers are bell-shaped, about 1/4" across and 1/2-5/8" long. Each flower has a hairy, green calyx with five lance-like teeth that is half the length of the corolla; a purple, pink or white funnel- or bell-shaped corolla with five small, recurved lobes at its lip; five stamens that do not extend past the margin of the corolla; and a pistil with a single white style that barely protrudes past the corolla margin. The fruits are a cluster of four, 4-5 mm long, nutlets nestled in the remnants of the flower calyx; the nutlets are dark brown or black when mature, oval and slightly flattened at one end. The remnants of the style protrude from the center of the fruit. Extracts of common comfrey are sometimes sold as herbal remedies but be aware that the plant is mildly toxic; it contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids that can be absorbed through the skin or gastric system and may cause (potentially fatal) liver toxicity and may be carcinogenic. Comfrey products for internal use or for use on open wounds are banned in the U.S. by the F.D.A. Supplements containing common comfrey probably should be avoided.

Symphytum

Symphytum officinale

common comfrey [Blooms: Apr-Jul]