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Field garlic

Allium oleraceum

Also called Wild Garlic

Field garlic
Photo: Ivar Leidus, CC BY-SA 3.0

Field garlic is a wild Eurasian onion, a bulbous perennial of dry, sunny, grassy places that grows about 30 cm tall. It is grown mainly as a wildflower or in rock and naturalistic gardens, and is best given a sunny, free-draining spot.

Family
Amaryllidaceae (Daffodil & onion family)
Grows as
Bulb, Perennial
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly; it tolerates dry conditions and rots in soggy soil.
Soil
Well-drained, alkaline or chalky soil or gritty mix.
Temperature
Hardy to about -15 °C; tolerates cold winters.
How easy
Easy
Edible
Yes, some parts
Native range
Europe to Caucasus
Climate
temperate

About

Allium oleraceum, the field garlic, is a Eurasian species of wild onion. It is a bulbous perennial that grows wild in dry places, reaching 30 centimetres (12 in) in height. It reproduces by seed, bulbs and by the production of small bulblets in the flower head (similarly to Allium vineale). Unlike A. vineale, it is very rare with A. oleraceum to find flower-heads containing bulbils only. In addition, the spathe in A. oleraceum is in two parts.

Its specific epithet oleraceum means "vegetable/herbal" in Latin and is a form of holeraceus (oleraceus).

Where it grows

Allium oleraceum is widespread across most of Europe, with additional populations in Turkey and the Caucasus. It is sparingly naturalised in scattered locations in North America.

Other Allium plants

South Idaho onion · Abrams' allium · Allium aciphyllum · Tapertip onion · Allium aeginiense · Allium aflatunense · Allium agrigentinum · Allium alabasicum · Allium albotunicatum · Allium alibile · Altai Onion · Allium altissimum

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Allium oleraceum 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.

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