Wild Garlic Allium Ursinum
Bears, Poisons and Stinking Onions
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Overview on Wild Garlic, Allium Ursinum.
The Wild Garlic season is well under way as we approach the Easter weekend. It's a very popular plant to forage due to its ease to identify, the smell is a dead giveaway! Also it’s very prolific around the UK and a very versatile ingredient. Having said that I do have a few pointers and tips.
HabitatIn this instance I am referring to the native species (talk about the non native alliums later), Allium Ursinum is its Latin name, it has other common names such as Ramsons, Buckrams, Broad-Leaved Garlic, Wood Garlic, Bear Leek, or Bear's Garlic. In most instances here in the UK I hear it referred to as Wild Garlic.
Why Bear Garlic? The latter part of the Latin name means of a bear, think of the constellation in the Northern sky, Ursa Minor the Little Bear. It’s thought this Wild Garlic got its name from the fact that emerging bears loved to dig up the roots for food. |
Three Cornered Leek (Allium Triquetrum) growing up through a patch of Wild Garlic/Ransoms (Allium Ursinum)
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This Wild Garlic loves the dappled light of older damp open deciduous woodlands, often found near a stream and sometimes pockets left on the edges of hedgerows, remnants of ancient woodland. It loves moisture and can take up to four years to reach a mature age to start reproduction. So avoid new dense woodland plantations with dry compacted ground. Although, due to climate change this is no hard and fast rule, in the UK it’s season tends to run from March to June.
It can form dense colonies, carpeting the woodland floor, tempting you to grab handfuls and here is where you need to use caution. Firstly from a sustainability point of few, it could be easy to look at this thick swathe of tempting green and fill your boots, pockets or basket. Please bear in mind our ancient woodland is under threat, pick only as much as you need, it’s a delicate leaf and will quickly go over. You can always return for more, after all you have 3-4 months of gathering. Always cut the leaves, tearing up the bulbs is illegal under the Countryside Act, you want to be able to return each year to a healthy crop and the bulbs are tiny compared to cultivated garlic.
The other important reason to not tear up handfuls is that at least 3 other toxic plants can be found growing in with the Wild Garlic and at a glance can easily go unnoticed to the untrained eye. Firstly Lily Of The Valley, sweetly scented but highly toxic, its leaves can appear very similar but once in flower it’s very distinctive. Wild Garlic produces one leaf per stem whereas Lilly of The Valley will have two to the leaves emanating from the same stem. If unsure use your nose, bearing in mind that by now your hands may reek of garlic!
Occasionally I have found Water Hemlock Dropwort growing up through the Wild Garlic, this deadly plant has carrot like leaves.
Lords and Ladies, one bite of this and you will pay for it, can leave your mouth burning for up to seven hours! This will really spoil your pesto. Easy to tell apart, its vein structure looks like crazy paving terminating just short of the edge of the leaf and has backwards pointing lobes where the leaf starts near the base of the stem. To avoid picking these poisonous but beautiful plants, gather just a few leaves at a time, check through them before bagging, and again when you return home to wash and cook your harvest.
It can form dense colonies, carpeting the woodland floor, tempting you to grab handfuls and here is where you need to use caution. Firstly from a sustainability point of few, it could be easy to look at this thick swathe of tempting green and fill your boots, pockets or basket. Please bear in mind our ancient woodland is under threat, pick only as much as you need, it’s a delicate leaf and will quickly go over. You can always return for more, after all you have 3-4 months of gathering. Always cut the leaves, tearing up the bulbs is illegal under the Countryside Act, you want to be able to return each year to a healthy crop and the bulbs are tiny compared to cultivated garlic.
The other important reason to not tear up handfuls is that at least 3 other toxic plants can be found growing in with the Wild Garlic and at a glance can easily go unnoticed to the untrained eye. Firstly Lily Of The Valley, sweetly scented but highly toxic, its leaves can appear very similar but once in flower it’s very distinctive. Wild Garlic produces one leaf per stem whereas Lilly of The Valley will have two to the leaves emanating from the same stem. If unsure use your nose, bearing in mind that by now your hands may reek of garlic!
Occasionally I have found Water Hemlock Dropwort growing up through the Wild Garlic, this deadly plant has carrot like leaves.
Lords and Ladies, one bite of this and you will pay for it, can leave your mouth burning for up to seven hours! This will really spoil your pesto. Easy to tell apart, its vein structure looks like crazy paving terminating just short of the edge of the leaf and has backwards pointing lobes where the leaf starts near the base of the stem. To avoid picking these poisonous but beautiful plants, gather just a few leaves at a time, check through them before bagging, and again when you return home to wash and cook your harvest.
Three Cornered Leek (Allium Triquetrum) with edible flowers
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I earlier referred to an edible non-native invasive species, this is called Allium Triquetrum. Commonly referred as Three Cornered Leek, the older locals here in Cornwall refer to it as Stinking Onion! The common and Latin name draws on the shape of the leaves, much thinner than the broad leaf of Wild Garlic and when cross sectioned has a distinctive three pointed shape. The flowers are also quite different. Wild Garlic has star-like flowers forming a cluster at the end of the stem, whereas Three Cornered Leek terminates in a single snowdrop like flower with a green stripe running down the centre of each petal.
Whilst foraging Wild Garlic be sure to cut the leaves leaving the bulb in place. Three Cornered Leek is a class 9 invasive competing for habitat, space, nutrients and light with our native species like the iconic Bluebell, so take as much as possible whilst ensuring you do not encourage the spread of it, it is illegal to spread invasive species. Wild Garlic is so versatile, make pesto, stir in to sauces just before serving, stuff or wrap fish, blend in oil and freeze in an ice cube tray to create wild garlic bombs to be added to sauces. |