Wild garlic.
Ramsons.
Allium ursinum
It's all the same thing.
For me it's one of the easiest spring plants to identify...
...after nettle...
...and maybe dandelion...
...actually cleavers and chickweed are fairly easy too...
...but after all of these wild garlic is the easiest.
Here's what it looks like:
Ok. So on first glance it looks like lots of other leafy growing things. Fair enough. However, the key to identifying it is to use your nose. Wild garlic smells...like garlic. If there is enough of it in one area it gives off the aroma of garlic bread. It's fairly pungent.
It grows mainly near water such as rivers and lochs but it also likes to grow under trees so you could easily find it in woodland. If the woodland is beside a river all the better! It doesn't like to be waterlogged though so you won't find it in boggy, marshy areas. If you have a city park with a river running through it you will probably find it there. Although best to wash it as it grows at dog-pee-height.
To make doubly sure you are picking the correct plant there are a few things to remember.
1)The young plant is not a glossy shiny green but more of a matt green.
2)When you pull the leaves they have a bit of stretch to them...they don't just snap off.
3)Once you have a leaf in your hand it will smell very strongly of garlic.
Have I mentioned that it smells of garlic?
It is an abundantly growing plant and I haven't found anything which particularly relies on it as a food stuff so I don't worry myself too much about how much of it I harvest. I do try and just pull up the leaves and try and leave the flowers for the insects, although the flowers are edible as well.
Now that you can identify it you can eat it.
Please notify all friends, family and work colleagues in advance of any wild garlic eating as you will smell for days.
(Usual disclaimers apply...Don't eat anything you can't positively identify and If you are in any doubt then don't pick it and certainly don't eat it)
lovely stuff :)
Posted by: Lucy | 12 April 2010 at 07:39