Field garlic, also known as wild garlic, allium vineale. Photograph by the Author.
It’s
early spring, maybe there is still snow on the ground, maybe not, but you see
some onion like stalks in the field and when you pick one you smell onions or
garlic. Or maybe it is later spring, and
you are mowing your yard for the first time, you run over and grind up some
onion like greens and suddenly you smell onions or garlic. Either case, you wonder what plant did you
just stumble upon?
Field
Garlic, allium vineale
Field garlic, allium vineale, photograph by the Author.
What
you found was field garlic, allium vineale, an invasive non-native
species of wild onion that was introduced into North America. Field garlic is also sometimes known as wild
garlic, onion grass, crow garlic or stag's garlic and it is a perennial wild
onion which grows from a bulb, it was originally native to the Middle East,
northwestern Africa and Europe It was
later introduced into North America and Australia where it is an invasive,
noxious weed. It is commonly found in
disturbed, overgrazed, or compacted soils, like your garden or back yard. Of the two invasive wild onions1
in North America, field garlic is the most common and can be found throughout
the United States, except in the Rocky Mountains, and in Canada, except in the
far north.
From “Allium vineale L., wild garlic”, by the Natural Resources Conservation Service; United States Department of Agriculture, HERE.
Field
garlic, just like its other cousins in the wild onions or allium family, is one
of the first plants to begin to grow during the spring, and in its more
southern parts of its range it will sprout as early as January, in more
northern range the greens will emerge through the snow from the underground
bulbs later in the spring.
“Allium vineale”, by Christiaan Sepp, from Flora Batava, Volume 2, 1807, by Jan Kops, from Wikimedia, HERE.
Characteristics
of field garlic, allium vineale
* It has an unmistakable onion-like
aroma
* It grows from an aromatic underground
bulb
* It has many small six-petaled flowers
in a cluster on top of the stem
* It has smooth, thin, chive like hollow
leaves2
Field
garlic, allium vineale, just like the three-cornered leek, allium
triquetrum, are both invasive plants and are very difficult to get rid of. Their leaves are water resistant, which makes
them impermeable to chemical herbicides and getting rid of them by pulling them
out by hand, once they have taken over an area, is an exercise in futility.
“So,
what do you do you do with them”?
Well, some people eat them. But before
you start foraging for those wild greens...
Remember
this rule...“When in doubt, leave the plant out”
Field Guide
To North American Edible Wild Plants, page 5
Always,
ALWAYS, ALWAYS, positively identify any plant before you even think of eating
it, if not, you might accidently eat a poisonous look-alike plant and that can
kill you, or at the very least it will make you sick! Also, be sure that the area that you are
collecting your wild plants from has not been exposed to chemicals.
When
it comes to wild onions, Greene Deane, the author of the blog, “Eat The Weeds”,
HERE,
writes “If a plant looks like an onion and smells like an onion, you can eat
it. If a plant looks like a garlic and smells
like a garlic, you can eat it”.
“Deadly Zigadenus, Meadow Death-camas”, by Walter Siegmund, June 5, 2009, from Wikimedia, HERE.
The
authors of Field Guide To North American Edible Wild Plants, further
clarified this by stating that you should avoid any plant that looks like an
onion, but lacks the onion smell, because it might be a poisonous plant such as
the death camass, zigadenus venenosus.4 Also, there are plants that smell like onions
and garlic, but don’t look like them, such as the edible, but invasive in North
America, garlic mustard, alliaria petiolate.
Garlic Mustard blooming along the edge of a field within the Franklin Farm Park in the Franklin Farm section of Oak Hill, Fairfax County, Virginia”, by Famartin, April 11, 2021, from Wikimedia, HERE.
In
recent years, during the early spring, people have begun to tramp through the
woods looking for wild ramps, allium tricoccum, because it is considered
by some to be a gourmet food. This has, unfortunately
for this native onion, pushed it to extinction in many areas it once was found
in. The problem is that this plant reproduces
very slowly, in fact the average wild ramp might not produce seeds until it’s over
seven years old, and then the plant might only produce seeds every other year. And just to slow things down even further,
the seeds might lay dormant for several years before germinating!3
So,
if you want to gather wild onions, instead of gathering increasingly rare
ramps, gather invasive field garlic instead!
The author of the article “How to Identify Edible Wild Onions - Field
Garlic, Ramps, Wild Leeks and More”, HERE,
suggested gathering as many of these plants as you would like. This article, among other tips, gave the
following:
“...bulbs
are best gathered after the aboveground portion of the plant has begun dying
back in summer or fall”
“Gather
the greens by chopping off a clump and dicing them up to use like you would
green onions or chives”
The bulb of a field garlic, allium vineale. Photograph by the Author.
So, next time you smell onions as you are walking through the spring woods or
fields, or even you own back yard, you might have found some ramps, but more
than likely you will have found some field garlic
For
more on spring plants read “Yellow Flowers, Speckled Leaves...What Is It? ©”, HERE.
Don’t forget to come back next week and read “Could You Survive, Survival
Priorities©”, where we will talk about what should be given first priority when
planning for possible survival situations, food, water, shelter and fire.
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE. Don’t forget to follow me on both The
Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE,
and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free
to leave a comment on either site. I
announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at
bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.
That
is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!
Notes
1
The second invasive wild onion found in North America, is the three-cornered
leek, allium triquetrum, which can be in the United States in California
and Oregon. Three-cornered leek will appear
during the rainy season on the west coast and by April, when its flowers are in
bloom, will seem to be everywhere.
2 This
is unlike the leaves of the three-cornered leek, allium triquetrum, which
has a three-sided, triangular stem or the leaves of ramps or wild leeks, allium tricoccum, which have one or two wide,
flat, oval-shaped leaves terminating in (pink-red) stems. These two plants are native to North America.
3 From
“How to Identify Edible Wild Onions - Field Garlic, Ramps, Wild Leeks and More”,
by Good life Revival
4
According to the Field Guide To North American Edible Wild Plants, page
259, which describes death camass, zigadenus venenosus “All plant
parts, especially the bulbs, contain alkaloids that can cause gastrointestinal
distress, weakness, loss of motor function and death ... All 12 native zigadenus
species should be considered extremely poisonous”.
Sources
Elias,
Thomas S. and Dykeman, Peter A.; Field Guide To North American Edible Wild
Plants, [Outdoor Life Books, Times Mirror Magazines, Inc., New York, NKY,
1982], pages 29 to 30 and 58 to 61.
Good life Revival; “How
to Identify Edible Wild Onions - Field Garlic, Ramps, Wild Leeks and More”, https://thegoodliferevival.com/blog/edible-wild-onions-garlic, accessed May 8,
2022, accessed May 8, 2022
Mazur,
Kellie; “The ever-elusive ramp”, The Buffalo News, April 24, 2020, (updated Jun
22, 2020), [© Copyright 2022
The Buffalo News Buffalo, NY], https://buffalonews.com/buffalo-magazine/the-ever-elusive-ramp/article_53d728d1-5a9a-5723-a3d5-bd7441368c1f.html, accessed May 8, 2022
Natural Resources
Conservation Service; “Allium vineale L., wild garlic”, [United States
Department of Agriculture], https://plants.usda.gov/home/plantProfile?symbol=ALVI,
accessed May 8, 2022
Wikimedia; “Allium
vineale”, by Christiaan Sepp, from Flora Batava, Volume 2, 1807, by Jan
Kops, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Allium_vineale_%E2%80%94_Flora_Batava_%E2%80%94_Volume_v2.jpg,
accessed May 14, 2022
Wikimedia; “Deadly Zigadenus, Meadow Death-camas”, by Walter Siegmund,
June 5, 2009, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zigadenus_venenosus_0116.JPG,
accessed May 14, 2022
Wikimedia; “Garlic
Mustard blooming along the edge of a field within the Franklin Farm Park in the
Franklin Farm section of Oak Hill, Fairfax County, Virginia”, by Famartin,
April 11, 2021, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2021-04-11_17_59_15_Garlic_Mustard_blooming_along_the_edge_of_a_field_within_the_Franklin_Farm_Park_in_the_Franklin_Farm_section_of_Oak_Hill,_Fairfax_County,_Virginia.jpg,
accessed May 14, 2022
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