Although no individual reports regarding this species have been seen, there have been cases of poisoning caused by the consumption, in large quantities and by some mammals, of certain members of this genus. Dogs seem to be particularly susceptible[76].
Range
Southeaster N. America - Texas to North Carolina.
Habitat
Low woods, thickets and meadows[43]. Woods and prairies in sandy or rocky soils, rarely on limestone or clay[274].
Edibility Rating
5 (1-5)
Medicinal Rating
2 (1-5)
Physical Characteristics
Bulb growing to 0.45m by 0.2m.
It is hardy to zone 4 and is not frost tender. It is in flower from May to June. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Bees, insects.
The plant prefers light (sandy) and medium (loamy) soils.
The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils.
It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade.
It requires moist or wet soil.
Habitats
Woodland Garden; Sunny Edge; Dappled Shade; Bog Garden; Cultivated Beds;
Bulb - raw or cooked[46, 61, 62, 177]. It can be used as a vegetable, or as a flavouring in soups and stews, and can also be pickled[2]. The bulb is up to 30mm in diameter, it is crisp, mild and with a pleasant flavour[183]. Used as a leek substitute according to one report[22], it is a garlic substitute according to others[55, 159, K].
Leaves - raw or cooked[55, 62, 177]. A delicious mild flavour, they are available from early spring until the autumn[K]. They make a very acceptable salad and can also be used as a greens or as a flavouring in cooked foods[K].
Flowers - raw. A little bit stronger flavour than the leaves, especially as the seeds begin to form, they can be used as a flavouring and garnish on salads[K].
The plant is antiasthmatic, carminative, cathartic, diuretic, expectorant and stimulant[257]. A tincture is used to prevent worms and colic in children, and also as a remedy for croup[257].
Although no other specific mention of medicinal uses has been seen for this species, members of this genus are in general very healthy additions to the diet. They contain sulphur compounds (which give them their onion flavour) and when added to the diet on a regular basis they help reduce blood cholesterol levels, act as a tonic to the digestive system and also tonify the circulatory system[K].
The juice of the plant is used as a moth repellent. The whole plant is said to repel insects and moles[20].
Cultivation details
Prefers a sunny position in a light well-drained soil[1]. A moisture loving plant according to another report[42].
The bulbs should be planted fairly deeply[1].
Bulbs grow to a good size under cultivation[183].
Some forms of this species produce many bulbils and are considered to be a pernicious weed in some areas of America[159], there is some risk that they could spread aggressively in Britain. This subspecies, however, is a form that does not produce bulbils and is much better behaved[200].
Grows well with most plants, especially roses, carrots, beet and chamomile, but it inhibits the growth of legumes[18, 20, 54]. This plant is a bad companion for alfalfa, each species negatively affecting the other[201].
Members of this genus are rarely if ever troubled by browsing deer[233].
Propagation
Seed - sow spring in a cold frame. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots when they are large enough to handle - if you want to produce clumps more quickly then put three plants in each pot. Grow them on in the greenhouse for at least their first winter and plant them out into their permanent positions in spring once they are growing vigorously and are large enough.
Division in spring. Very easy, the plants divide successfully at any time in the growing season and the divisions can be planted straight out into their permanent positions if required.
Links
Permaculture.info Details of this plant in the Permaculture.info project, a community plant and permaculture database.
References
[K] Ken Fern Notes from observations, tasting etc at Plants For A Future and on field trips.
[1] F. Chittendon.RHS Dictionary of Plants plus Supplement. 1956 Oxford University Press 1951 Comprehensive listing of species and how to grow them. Somewhat outdated, it has been replaces in 1992 by a new dictionary (see [200]).
[2] Hedrick. U. P.Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. Dover Publications 1972 ISBN 0-486-20459-6 Lots of entries, quite a lot of information in most entries and references.
[18] Philbrick H. and Gregg R. B.Companion Plants. Watkins 1979 Details of beneficial and antagonistic relationships between neighbouring plants.
[20] Riotte. L.Companion Planting for Successful Gardening. Garden Way, Vermont, USA. 1978 ISBN 0-88266-064-0 Fairly good.
[22] Sholto-Douglas. J.Alternative Foods. 0 Not very comprehensive, it seems more or less like a copy of earlier writings with little added.
[42] Grey. C. H.Hardy Bulbs. Williams & Norgate. 1938 Rather dated now, but an immense work on bulbs for temperate zones and how to grow them. Three large volumes.
[43] Fernald. M. L.Gray's Manual of Botany. American Book Co. 1950 A bit dated but good and concise flora of the eastern part of N. America.
[46] Uphof. J. C. Th.Dictionary of Economic Plants. Weinheim 1959 An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.
[54] Hatfield. A. W.How to Enjoy your Weeds. Frederick Muller Ltd 1977 ISBN 0-584-10141-4 Interesting reading.
[55] Harris. B. C.Eat the Weeds. Pivot Health 1973 Interesting reading.
[61] Usher. G.A Dictionary of Plants Used by Man. Constable 1974 ISBN 0094579202 Forget the sexist title, this is one of the best books on the subject. Lists a very extensive range of useful plants from around the world with very brief details of the uses. Not for the casual reader.
[62] Elias. T. and Dykeman. P.A Field Guide to N. American Edible Wild Plants. Van Nostrand Reinhold 1982 ISBN 0442222009 Very readable.
[76] Cooper. M. and Johnson. A.Poisonous Plants in Britain and their Effects on Animals and Man. HMSO 1984 ISBN 0112425291 Concentrates mainly on the effects of poisonous plants to livestock.
[159] McPherson. A. and S.Wild Food Plants of Indiana. Indiana University Press 1977 ISBN 0-253-28925-4 A nice pocket guide to this region of America.
[177] Kunkel. G.Plants for Human Consumption. Koeltz Scientific Books 1984 ISBN 3874292169 An excellent book for the dedicated. A comprehensive listing of latin names with a brief list of edible parts.
[183] Facciola. S.Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications 1990 ISBN 0-9628087-0-9 Excellent. Contains a very wide range of conventional and unconventional food plants (including tropical) and where they can be obtained (mainly N. American nurseries but also research institutes and a lot of other nurseries from around the world.
[200] Huxley. A.The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992 ISBN 0-333-47494-5 Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
[201] Allardice.P.A - Z of Companion Planting. Cassell Publishers Ltd. 1993 ISBN 0-304-34324-2 A well produced and very readable book.
[233] Thomas. G. S.Perennial Garden Plants J. M. Dent & Sons, London. 1990 ISBN 0 460 86048 8 A concise guide to a wide range of perennials. Lots of cultivation guides, very little on plant uses.
[257] Moerman. D.Native American Ethnobotany Timber Press. Oregon. 1998 ISBN 0-88192-453-9 Very comprehensive but terse guide to the native uses of plants. Excellent bibliography, fully referenced to each plant, giving a pathway to further information. Not for the casual reader.
[274] Diggs, Jnr. G.M.; Lipscomb. B. L. & O'Kennon. R. JIllustrated Flora of North Central Texas Botanical Research Institute, Texas. 1999 ISBN 1-889878-01-4 An excellent flora, which is also available on-line.
Readers Comments
Allium vineale
Michael J. Orlove D.I.C., D. Phil
Sun, 25 Jul 1999
Universe!
Dear Rich, 24-July-1999
I discovered your page with the following URL:
http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/onions.html
In it you made reference to Allium ursinum, as "wild garlic". I
always
thought A. ursinum was a rare species in North American woods,
and
that in Britain and North America the term was usually applied to
A vineale. It is also applied to A. canadesne as you know, and also
feral populations of A. sativum whose origin in the New world is
considered
mysterious, Native Americans and early White settlers have both been
suspected of introducing it, or possibly it spread on its own without
human agency (which I doubt). A. vineale is a tubular leaved species
but it is much more closely related to A. ampeloprasum, A. sativum,
A., scorodoprasum, A. shaeonoprasum, and A. rosem than to A. cepa,
or A. fistulosum. It is the one that is a pest in wheatfields because
of the similarity of its bulbils in shape and density to wheat kernels,
making mechanical separation very difficult.
what has fascinated me so much about A. vineale is its extreme
variation
in umbel contents even within a local population. some plants have
flowers some bulbils, and some both. When bulbils are few or absent
in the umbel, the blossoms are VERY showy --being companulate instead
of ovatge.
At such times they are purple instead of green. The very showy form
is known as A. V. capsuliferum in reference to its seed capsules.
the half and half (bulbils and blossoms) form is called A. V. typicum,
and the all bulbil one is A. v. compactgum. Two dark pigmented
bulbilforms
are also described, one reproduces like compactum, and is called A.
v. fuscescens, and the other appears to have viviparous bulbils, but
the "sprouts" are actually non-vestigal blades on scale leaves on the
bulbils, and is known as A. v. crinitum. crinitum usually has one
or 2 ovate flowers per umbel which are lavender or purple in color.
All sorts of intermediates exist between these forms. Here in Ithaca
fuscescens-like ones have flowers, and crinitum like ones don't or
crinitum like ones will have many flowers and viable flowers with
many capsuls forming.
I once found a clump of capsuliferum surrounded by a vast field of
hundreds and thousands of typicum. Those typicum near the capliferum
had purple flowers like the capsuliferum, but the ones farther out
had the green flowers typical of typicum. The blossoms of this species
are usually visited by tiny ants, sweat bees, or nothing at all, but
the capsuliferum where being actively and aggressively visited by
large bumblebees (Bombus pennsylvanicus --a large pocket maker, related
to the British species B agrorum, but as big as B. terristris). Large
paper wasps (Polistes fuscatus) were equally present and interested
in the nectar.
An article by Hugo Iltis in the 1940's (it was either in Scientific
Monthly or Atlantic Monthly) claimed that this showy capsuliferum
form made it as far north a as North Carolina, and . v. typicum was
as good as you could get in the Northeast.
Nevertheless this wonderful clump of capsuliferum I found was in
the Bronx! that was in 1979, and it continued to persist there until
1983. could this have been global warming? the real question was this
capsuliferum more related to the non - sexual nonspecific neighbors
around it, or capsuliferum in N. Ccarolina? did it evolve denovo from
non-sexual or less sexual forms?
Many biologists say it is a mystery how sex evolved to begin with
(the origin - of- sex question" and it is equally a mystery how sex
stays in the population and doesn't get selected against (the
maintenance
- of -sex question). John Maynard Smith (at the University of Susex),
Goeffrey Parker (University of Liverpool), and George Williams
(University
of the State of New York at Stonybrook) have become famous elucidating
and trying to solve this mystery. It seems that mating with a stranger
may further the fitness of your offspring, but it appears not enough to
justify throwing half-of your genes away, as a female does when mating.
Plants with both cleistogamous and chasmogamous flowers, like Violo
sp., Impatiens capensis (Orange balsam), and I. noli-tangeri
(touch-me-not),
and the very similar North American I. palida, not to mention the
hog peanut, Amphicarpaea xxx, present a similar example of this mystery.
What are your thoughts on this issue? How far north does A. v.
capsuliferum
make it in Britain? I have found capsuliferum in Interlaken, N. Y.
Near Ithaca, N. Y. where Cornell University is, but these ones were
not as tall or showy as the ones from the much warmer Bronx. but they
were capsuliferum, and made good seed. I have 2 accessions of them,
one from a bulbil, and the other from a seed collected from the same
umbel in Interlaken.
I have been unable to get them to blossom or even bolt with bulbils
in my garden, just getting non scapigqarous growth every spring.
There is some folklore in this country that A. vineale takes on its
capsuliferum form when in the vacinity of an underground stream, and
dowsers exploit the information provided by the occurrence of the plant
in particular instances.
Well I must go now, Please forgive my sloppy typing, I am disabled
and it takes me eons to proofread things. Incidentally, are you in
Cornwall, or Yorkshire?
Some day I will, if I only live, compare the DNA of different forms
of A. V. vineale from different locations. the Bronx material seems
to be now absent from the original site, I have been back 3 times
over the years, and the material I collected now exists as seed in
cold storage, but I lack access to it over a technicality (it was
shipped to another storage facility instead to Harvard where I was
going to grow it out, due to an accident, and it would take a very
large sum to recover it, as well as the permission of the person who
became its accidental owner who is not willing to release it to me.
this is very frustrating.
sincerely yours,
Michael J. Orlove D.I.C., D. Phil
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