Scrophularia umbrosa, the Green figwort or Water Betony, is a perennial

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

 herbaceous

Herbaceous

A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...

 plant

Plant

Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...

 found in temperate regions of the Northern hemisphere

Northern Hemisphere

The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of its equator—the word hemisphere literally means “half sphere”. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...

 except western North America. Synonyms are Scrophularia alata Gilib.; Scrophularia ehrharti Stevens; Scrophularia hurstii Druce; Scrophularia towndrowi Druce. It grows in moist and cultivated waste ground.

The plant is probably poisonous to cows, pollinated by bees and wasps. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade, but requires moist or wet soil.

Folklore

The plant was thought, by the doctrine of signatures

Doctrine of signatures

The doctrine of signatures is a philosophy shared by herbalists from the time of Dioscurides and Galen. This doctrine states that herbs that resemble various parts of the body can be used to treat ailments of that part of the body. Examples include the plants liverwort; snakeroot, an antidote for...

 to be able to cure the throat disease scrofula

Scrofula

Tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis refers to a lymphadenitis of the cervical lymph nodes associated with tuberculosis. It was previously known as "scrofula".-The disease:...

because of the throat-like shape of its flowers.