Allium vineale

Allium vineale (wild garlic, onion grass, crow garlic or stag's garlic) is a perennial, bulb-forming species of wild onion, native to Europe, northwestern Africa and the Middle East. The species was introduced in Australia and North America, where it has become an Invasive species.

Description
All parts of the plant have a strong garlic odour. The underground bulb is 1–2 cm diameter, with a fibrous outer layer. The main (flower) stem grows to 30–120 cm tall, bearing 2–4 leaves and an apical inflorescence 2–5 cm diameter comprising a number of small bulbils and none to a few flowers, subtended by a basal bract.

The leaves are slender hollow tubes, 15–60 cm long and 2–4 mm thick, waxy texture, with a groove along the side of the leaf facing the stem. Although very similar with the leaves of Allium schoenoprasum, they tend to be more fibreous, have more vertical grooves, and the grooves are more well defined than the leaves of Chives.

The inflorescence is a tight umbel surrounded by a membranous bract in bud which withers when the flowers open. Each individual flower is stalked and has a pinkish-green perianth 2.5 to 4.5 mm long. There are six tepals, six stamens and a pistil formed from three fused carpels. Mixed with the flowers are several yellowish-brown bulbils.

The fruit is a capsule but the seeds seldom set and propagation usually takes place when the bulbils are knocked off and grow into new plants.

Plants with no flowers, only bulbils, are sometimes distinguished as the variety Allium vineale var. compactum, but this character is probably not taxonomically significant.

Although crow's garlic has an odour similar to true garlic, A. sativum, forms flowers full of bulbils just like garlic and dies back during summer, the leaf structure is more similar to those of chives, A. schoenoprasum, to which A. vineale is more closely related to than true garlic.

Die back
During summer, just like domesticated garlic (A. sativum), after it forms the flower, the plant dies back over the course of the last summer months and sprouts back in mid autumn when precipitations grow and temperatures drop enough.

This is one of the reasons why the plants can be quite easily spread and become a weed, because during the most intense agricultural soil mechanical interactions, the weeds are almost impossible to identify, and both the bulbs and newly formed bulbils are dormant and less susceptible to die from mechanical damage.

Uses and invasiveness


The leaves, flowers, and bulbs of Allium vineale are edible. While it has been suggested as a substitute for garlic, there is some difference of opinion as to whether there is an unpleasant aftertaste compared to that of common garlic (Allium sativum). It imparts a garlic-like flavour and odour on dairy and beef products when grazed by livestock. It is considered a pestilential invasive weed in the US, as grain products may become tainted with a garlic odour or flavour in the presence of aerial bulblets at the time of harvest. Wild garlic is tolerant to herbicides, which cannot cling well to the vertical, smooth and waxy structure of its leaves.

Allium vineale 'Hair', a cultivated variety, is sold as an ornamental plant in the UK and USA. It has unusual flowerheads which have purple centres and green hair-like extensions.