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Wild garlic

Robert Flogaus-Faust / Wikimedia Commons - CC BY 4.0

Wild garlic

Allium ursinum

Ramsons, the wild garlic of damp European woodland: a small bulb whose broad, bright green, garlic-scented leaves carpet the woodland floor from late winter, followed in spring by rounded heads of starry white flowers, before the whole plant dies back out of sight by midsummer. Every part is edible, but its leaves look like those of poisonous lily of the valley, autumn crocus and young Arum, so a forager must be sure of it. It spreads freely by bulbs and seed, so give it a shady corner where a carpet is welcome.

Climate fit: narrow (39/100)

Filler

Edible

Light

Part sun / Part shade

Water

Consistent moisture

Mature size

6-12" tall · 6" apart

Hardy in zones

5a-9b

very cold to frosty winters

Life cycle

Perennial

Bloom period

Spring / Summer

Native in Illinois

No

Related products

Cold hardiness

These values are location-based: this location's current hardiness is the baseline, and the 2050 value is a projected future climate for this same location.

Now

Zone 6b

Plotwright

USDA Zone 6b

-5°F to 0°F

Well-suited

2050

2100

Zone 7a

Plotwright

0°F to 5°F

Well-suited

In plain terms: This location has cold winters. Its winters are projected to keep warming through 2050.

✓

Well-suited today and still thriving in 2050.

Heat tolerance

Heat tolerance values are location-based too: heat days today are observed at this site, and the 2050 value projects this same location under a future climate.

Loading AHS heat-zone data for this location...

Where this plant fits

Suitable across 37 ecoregions - 28 climate-resilient through 2070 · 1 suited today · 8 newly possible by 2070. Best matches first.

Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests

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Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests

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Arizona Mountains forests

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Atlantic coastal pine barrens

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Blue Mountains forests

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Central Pacific Northwest coastal forests

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Central-Southern Cascades Forests

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Chilean Matorral

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Colorado Rockies forests

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Cross-Timbers savanna-woodland

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What it needs

Conditions

Light

Part sun / Part shade

Water

Consistent moisture

Spacing

6"

Habit

Low spring bulb with broad basal leaves, spreading by bulbs and seed into dense carpets and dying back completely by early summer

Care tips

•

Plant it where a spreading carpet is welcome, such as under deciduous trees or along a shady hedge, and keep it away from mixed borders: the Missouri Botanical Garden and the RHS both warn it spreads quickly.

•

Pick leaves from late winter until the flowers open, when they are at their best; take a few from each plant rather than stripping one.

•

Before eating any leaf, check it: one leaf per stalk, bright green and smelling of garlic when crushed. Lily of the valley, autumn crocus and Arum leaves look similar and are poisonous.

Lifecycle

Planting

Plant in part shade under deciduous trees or shrubs, in rich, moist but well-drained soil; it grows wild in damp woods, copses and hedgerows (Plants For A Future, Woodland Trust). Plants For A Future says the bulbs should be planted fairly deeply. Choose the spot with care: the Missouri Botanical Garden and the RHS both say it spreads quickly and is best kept out of cultivated beds.

Transplanting

Move or divide clumps while dormant, in summer after the leaves have withered, and replant at once at the same depth.

Early growth

Keep the soil moist while the leaves are up from late winter into spring. The Missouri Botanical Garden warns that bulbs rot in soil that stays too wet, and adds sand to heavy clay, so aim for moist but not waterlogged ground.

Maturity

The Missouri Botanical Garden gives 6 to 12 inches tall and wide, with flower stems sometimes to 18 inches, and the RHS a height of 4 to 20 inches and a spread of 1.6 to 3.3 feet per clump. Leaves appear in late winter, flowers follow in spring and seed by midsummer, then the plant goes dormant; Plants For A Future notes the space it leaves can be used by other plants in summer.

Propagation

Sow seed as soon as it is ripe, in place or in a cold frame, or divide clumps in summer once the leaves have died down; Plants For A Future calls division very easy, with the pieces going straight into their final places. The RHS also lists seed and division. The Woodland Trust notes it reproduces mainly by bulbs, and Plants For A Future that ants carry the seeds.

Pollination

Needs cross-pollination

Insect-pollinated: Wikipedia, citing the Woodland Trust, and Plants For A Future name bees, and the RHS calls it a good source of early nectar for pollinators. Each head carries about 15 to 25 small white flowers (Missouri Botanical Garden, Woodland Trust). None of the sources cited here settles whether a single plant sets seed on its own pollen, so this record conservatively treats it as needing a partner; in practice it spreads mostly by bulbs, so seed matters little in a garden.

Plants don't grow alone

Nectar forage

Bee

European honeybee (Apis mellifera)

The Woodland Trust calls it an important early bloom for bees and other insects, and the RHS a good source of early nectar for pollinators. Neither names a species; the honey bee, native to Europe, is mapped as a representative visitor within its native range.

Nectar forage

Bee

Early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum)

Sources name bees in general (Woodland Trust, Plants For A Future, Wikipedia) without naming a species. The early bumblebee, on the wing in European spring when wild garlic flowers, is mapped as a plausible visitor within its European range.

For people

Edible

Every part is edible (Wikipedia). Plants For A Future and the Woodland Trust list the leaves raw in salads or cooked, used like spinach or in soup and pesto, and the flowers raw; Plants For A Future and the Missouri Botanical Garden add the small bulbs. The leaves are best before the plant flowers (Woodland Trust, Missouri Botanical Garden). FORAGING WARNING: the leaves look like those of poisonous plants that grow in the same places. Wikipedia names lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis), autumn crocus (Colchicum autumnale), lords-and-ladies (Arum maculatum) and false hellebores (Veratrum), all poisonous, and, citing Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, says people in Europe are regularly poisoned after picking lily of the valley or autumn crocus by mistake. The Missouri Botanical Garden also notes the resemblance to lily of the valley, and the Woodland Trust says to identify wild garlic fully before foraging. How to tell them apart: each wild garlic leaf rises on its own stalk from the ground and is bright green, glossy when young, with one main vein, while lily of the valley carries two or three dull green leaves together on one reddish-purple stem (Wikipedia, Woodland Trust), and the unfolded leaves of Arum have irregular edges and many deep veins (Wikipedia). A crushed wild garlic leaf smells strongly of garlic, but Wikipedia warns that the smell stays on your fingers and can make the next, poisonous leaf seem safe; check every leaf, and if in doubt leave it. Plants For A Future adds that eating very large quantities has caused poisoning and that dogs seem to be particularly susceptible.

Native range

Worldwide native range.

Climate notes

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The Missouri Botanical Garden lists Allium ursinum for USDA hardiness zones 5a-9b, which this record uses. Plants For A Future gives 4-8, and the RHS rates it H7, hardy in the coldest British and Irish winters. The two zone readings disagree on both edges, so the range here rests on the Missouri Botanical Garden alone.

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The native range here is taken from Kew's World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), the dataset POWO publishes: most of Europe, from Portugal, Spain, Ireland and Great Britain east through Scandinavia, central Europe and the Baltic States to Ukraine and European Russia, south to Corsica, Sicily and Greece, and on into the Caucasus. WCVP lists no area where it has been introduced.

•

It is not native to North America. USDA PLANTS has a profile for it but records no distribution in the United States or Canada, and none of the sources cited here reports it spreading outside its native range.

•

Sources differ on light. The Missouri Botanical Garden says full sun to part shade and notes it takes part shade better than most onions, the RHS says full sun or partial shade, and Plants For A Future lists full shade, semi-shade or sun. In the wild it is a plant of deciduous woodland, growing in the spring light before the canopy closes (Wikipedia, Woodland Trust).

•

It wants moisture while in leaf: Plants For A Future says it prefers moist soil and is often found in quite wet places, and Wikipedia records it in moist, slightly acid woods, while the Woodland Trust adds chalky soils and the RHS lists acid, neutral and alkaline. The Missouri Botanical Garden lists drought tolerance, which fits a bulb that is dormant through summer.

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In gardens it can take over. The Missouri Botanical Garden says it spreads invasively by rhizomes and self-seeding and can carpet large areas, the RHS that it spreads rapidly by seeds and bulbils and may be best kept out of cultivated areas, and Plants For A Future that it can be a very invasive plant, though its own weed-potential field reads No.

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Educator packet

Plant packet

Wild garlic educator packet

Ramsons, the wild garlic of damp European woodland: a small bulb whose broad, bright green, garlic-scented leaves carpet the woodland floor from late winter, followed in spring by rounded heads of starry white flowers, before the whole plant dies back out of sight by midsummer. Every part is edible, but its leaves look like those of poisonous lily of the valley, autumn crocus and young Arum, so a forager must be sure of it. It spreads freely by bulbs and seed, so give it a shady corner where a carpet is welcome.

Scientific name

Allium ursinum

Plant type

herb

Hardiness

5a-9b

Light

part-sun, part-shade

Moisture

consistent

Spacing

6"