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Slender false garlic

Nothoscordum gracile

Also called False Garlic, Fragrant False Garlic, Onionweed, Daffodil Garlic, Flowering Onion, Guernsey Star Of Bethlehem, Naples Garlic

Slender false garlic
Photo: Dick Culbert from Gibsons, B.C., Canada, CC BY 2.0
Family
Amaryllidaceae (Daffodil & onion family)
Grows as
Bulb
Native range
SE. Mexico to S. South America
Climate
subtropical

About

Nothoscordum gracile, also known as slender false garlic, or fragrant onion, is a bulbous plant belonging to the Amaryllidaceae family. Native from southern Mexico to western South America, the species is used as an ornamental plant due to its showy inflorescences and the fragrance of its flowers.

Where it grows

Its distribution range is from southeast Mexico to South America. It is widely naturalized in Australia, USA, South Asia, Southern Europe and Africa. A garden escape, it is a widespread, highly invasive and common weed in gardens that is hard to eradicate. It grows in grasslands, lawns, footpaths, pastures, roadsides and disperses through seed and underground bulblets. Its seeds can be dispersed by wind, water and dumped garden waste.

Uses

The bulb is about 15mm in diameter and is edible. The plant is a garlic substitute and can be used as a spice.

Other Nothoscordum plants

Crowpoison · Fragrant false garlic · False Garlic

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Nothoscordum gracile by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.

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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