On Wed, 17 Mar 2004 07:16:45 -0000, Brian Watson wrote:

My Mother - generally v knowledgeable in gardening matters - has a clump of
plants she thinks is wild garlic.

It is growing in her garden in Essex and it now resembles spring onions but
with none of the distinctive smell. I pulled up a bulb and split it across
with my thumb nail and it didn't have the distinctive structure of a garlic
bulb as usually recognised either.

Is it possible this is wild garlic - without features that appear later in
the year, and then only in cultivated forms?

I doubt it, nearly, if not all the Alliums have a scent.
There seems to be some confusion over the name "Wild garlic".
I use it to mean Allium ursinum, also known as Ransom.
Note the wide leaves! see he
http://www.offwell.free-online.co.uk...ge/ramsons.htm
It can also be used for A. vineale which is also known as wild onion.
Both have distinct a oniony/garlic/chive scent.

If it doesn't smell like an onion, I wouldn't eat it.

There are frequent cases of poisonings every year in Germany and Austria of
people confusing ransom (Bärlauch) with the leaves of the crocus/meadow
saffron (Colchicum autumnale) and lily-of-the-valley (Convallaria majalis).

--
Tim.

If the human brain were simple enough that we could understand it, we would
be so simple that we couldn't.