Wild Garlic A Native Onion With Deadly Cousins

Wild Garlic, Allium canadense is a member of the Lily family (Liliaceae) that grows wild throughout the plains of North America. Sometimes called meadow garlic, this wild onion produces pink or white flowers in a cluster at the end of a central flower stalk. You can see Wild Garlic in bloom from May to July. Its grass like leaves resemble those of chives or scallions and they grow from a bulb like the other onions.

Turkeys enjoy these wildflowers as food and bees and butterflies feed on the nectar of their flowers. Humans can consume wild garlic but you have to be careful during harvest. The stems leaves and flowers of wild garlic, when crushed, will smell like onion. IF it does not, you may have picked a poisonous member of the lily family that looks just like wild garlic.

The hazardous look-alike is Nothoscordum bivalve also known as Crow Poison. This plant tends to have white flowers with yellow orange anthers. It can be found in the same habitat as wild garlic. When crushed, it does not have an onion smell. Its toxicity to humans and crows is undetermined but consuming this plant may make you sick; or if you are sensitive to its compounds, it may kill you. SO, NEVER eat any wild plant that you haven’t identified correctly. The consequences may be fatal.