Wild Garlic, One of the First Plants of Spring ©

 

 

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