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Allium scorodoprasum
Also called Spanish Garlic, Giant Garlic
Sand leek is a perennial wild onion from Europe to the Middle East, grown for its garlic-like bulb and bulbils. It is rarely cultivated and does best in moist, well-drained soil in a sunny to lightly shaded spot.
The sand leek (Allium scorodoprasum), also known as rocambole and Korean pickled-peel garlic, is a Eurasian species of wild onion with a native range extending across much of Europe, Middle East, and Korea.
The species should not be confused with rocambole garlic, which is A. sativum var. ophioscorodon.
A. scorodoprasum is edible, but rarely cultivated, and has a shorter flower stalk and fewer and more inconsistently shaped cloves than Rocambole garlic. Sand leek also has a dark violet bulb wrapper.
Elephant garlic (properly A. ampeloprasum var. ampeloprasum) is also sometimes incorrectly sold as A. scorodoprasum.
The natural habitat of A. scorodoprasum is damp broad-leaved woodland, forest margins, shores, hillside meadows and hedgerows. It was at one time used as a kitchen herb and can occasionally be found near old habitations.
The bulbs and flower bulbils can be cooked similar to garlic, with a milder flavor.
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 scorodoprasum 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.
