This plant is growing in one or two places around the property - in moist meadow on the forest edge conditions. I don't know if it is native or nativized. It started as a large leaved rosette earlier in the year and sent up these flowering stalks starting in May, two to three feet high. The stem is ribbed and the leaves are quite hairy.
the flowers are held in a one sided inflorescence that curls like a bishop's crozier. its called a scorpiod cyme and is characteristic of the Borages, the Boraginaceae.
My first guess was there was something borage-like about it but it wasn't in my Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast under that family. Comfrey sounds likely, especially as it is growing in an area where manure was dumped and it is a nitrogen lover. Thanks for putting me on the right track.
