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Alliaria petiolata
Also called Hedge Garlic, Jack By The Hedge, Hedge Mustard
Garlic mustard is a biennial herb in the cabbage family, grown or foraged for its garlic-flavoured leaves, and it is an invasive weed in parts of North America. It forms leaf rosettes in its first year and flowers the following spring.
Alliaria petiolata, or garlic mustard, is a biennial flowering plant in the mustard family (Brassicaceae). It is native to Europe, western and central Asia, north-western Africa, Morocco, Iberia and the British Isles, north to northern Scandinavia, and east to northern Pakistan and Xinjiang in western China. It has now become a tenacious invasive plant across the northern U.S., in particular because of its earlier springtime emergence than many native species, often in the forest understory.
In the first year of growth, plants form clumps of round, slightly wrinkled leaves, that when crushed smell like garlic. The plants flower in spring of the next year, producing cross-shaped white flowers in dense clusters. As the flowering stems bloom they elongate into a spike-like shape. When flowering is complete, plants produce upright fruits that release seeds in mid-summer.
Garlic mustard is one of the oldest spices used in Europe. Phytoliths in pottery of the Ertebølle and Funnelneck-Beaker culture in north-eastern Germany and Denmark, dating to 4100–3750 BCE, indicate its use in that era.
In 17th-century Britain, it was recommended as a flavouring for salt fish. It can also be made into a sauce for eating with roast lamb or salad. Early European settlers brought the herb to the New World to use as a garlic-type flavouring. Its traditional medicinal purposes include use as a diuretic. The herb was also planted as a form of erosion control.
Young first-year garlic mustard plants contain up to 100 ppm cyanide, a level which is toxic to many vertebrates. Once the plant is chopped up, the cyanide gas is eliminated.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Alliaria petiolata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
