Tuesday 7 April 2020

A Paradox of a Weed

Our local wood has drifts of these at this time of year.  They have a faint smell of garlic, but what are they? 




Well they are not 

Wild Garlic (Allium ursinum), which has broader leaves round stems and starlike clusters of flowers

Spring or Summer Snowflake (Leucojum), which have quite showy flowers and haven't made it north of the border, yet.

 Wild Onion/Three Cornered Leek (Allium triquetrum).  Their flowers hang in clusters and petals have a green stripe

They turn out to be Few-Flowered Garlic (Allium paradoxum),The long narrow leaves are small in number and each has a ridge on one side and a groove down the other.  Flowers are, as the name suggests, few in number and sit atop a triangular stem. Another characteristic I will be looking out for is the development of bulbils after flowering.  Yes I think I have nailed it (at last)!





They are an introduced species from Turkey/Iran district dating back to 1823.  The first record of them appearing in the wild  in the UK is 1863 "near Edinburgh".  I rest my case.

Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh hate them  See https://stories.rbge.org.uk/archives/28757  for their suggestions as to how to deal with it.




2 comments:

  1. Wild garlic is a new thing for me. I have never seen here.

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  2. You really don't want to see it. (I would much rather have your orchids growing wild)

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