Alias sheep's foot, sheep's foot, sheep's foot rhubarb, earth rhubarb, cow's tongue tree, wild beet; earth king's root, cow's tongue tree, cow's ear rhubarb

Family Classification Comfreyaceae

Pinyin niu she cao

Latin name Folium Fumicis Dentati

Latin plants Animal Mineral Name Rumex dentatus L.

40 cm (16 inches) tall, bristly; leaf margin finely toothed and lobed; flowers small, bright blue, tubular, mouth lobed, throat with white hairs. Clusters, resembling small clusters of half of a corolla tube with striped, half-closed noctuid flowers. Viper's ox-tongue (E. vulgare, the common blue thistle), also known as blue ghost grass, bluegrass, 90 cm (35 inches) tall, coarsely hairy, with bright blue flowers, occurs in Europe and has been naturalized in North America. Purple viper's viper's ox-tongue (E. lycopsis, or Mediterranean blue thistle), or cart-shaped blue thistle (E. plantagineum), produced in the Mediterranean region, similar to the above species, but the flowers are larger and shorter, with softer hairs, and is a garden flower.