English: Russian comfrey (Symphytum x uplandicum) Russian comfrey is native to Europe; it grows in damp, grassy areas and is a common plant throughout Great Britain. It was introduced in the 1870s by a Quaker smallholder, Henry Doubleday, who had a small factory making gum for stamps, at a time when gum Arabic was in short supply. Looking for potential new sources of gum he sent to Russia for some of their indigenous comfrey plants. Incidentally, the plants he received were natural hybrids and of no use for gum production but comfrey has long been known by herbalists and organic gardeners. When Lawrence D. Hills, founder and president of the HDRA, started his work promoting organic gardening, he took a special personal interest in comfrey and conducted experiments in order to categorise the different forms found in Britain.