If you like a strong garlic flavor, this weed is for you!
Sometimes mistakenly called Wild Onion, it’s also known as Onion Grass, Crow Garlic, Field Garlic, and Wild Garlic. The scent is so strongly pungent like garlic (sometimes overpowering when it’s mowed), that most people gravitate to the Wild Garlic handle.
Scientifically, Wild Garlic is called Allium vineale, meaning “onion commonly growing in vineyards,” presumably the agricultural setting where it was first scientifically named.
Family: Amaryllidaceae, commonly known as the Onion family
Habit: Clumping, upright growth
Roots: White bulbs with roots growing from the bottom; offsets grow from the original bulb, creating big clumps; the offsets are also called bulblets
Leaves: Dark green, waxy, round and hollow, looking very much like chives; all leaves come from the bulb; note that Wild Onion does not have round leaves; instead, the leaves are flat
Flowering Stems: The flowering stems of Alliums are called a scape; scapes are also round and hollow; while the scape looks like the leaves, it’s usually stiffer
Flowers: Small, greenish-white to pinkish flowers held in an umbel shape (like a parsley, fennel, or carrot flower)
Fruit/Seed: Primarily reproduces via bulbils that form on flowers, rather than via true seed; however, this is a complicated structure because seeds can form alongside or in place of bulbils. I read that the seeds that are produced can remain dormant in the ground for years before germinating. Bulbils are a fascinating botanical aspect of life in the onion family because they are a form of quick vegetative reproduction from the aerial flower scape, instead of by spreading roots or by seed! If you’ve heard of walking onions, it’s the same feature: a plant that “walks” around the veggie patch reproducing when the scapes bend under the weight of a bulbil, to touch the ground and root to the delight of young and old gardeners alike.
Wild Garlic is a cool-season perennial plant that appears in fall/winter and goes dormant in the heat of summer. While it abounds in North America from growing zones 4 to 8, it’s an adaptable transplant from Europe, Asia, and northern Africa. It thrives in sunny lawns, pastures, roadsides, and any soil (moist or dry) that’s been moved by construction, landscaping, or farming. Like most weeds, it congregates where people disturb the soil, like in the vineyard setting described at the beginning.
Not just confined to sunny sites, I also see Wild Garlic growing in partially shaded woodland margins and even in shaded (or sunny) gravel driveways and slate/pebble walkways.
Wild Garlic weeds really become noticeable in dormant warm-season lawns when the clumps grow taller in winter. Even the most pristine lawns can have an abundant Wild Garlic "crop" because the clumps of tall, round leaves appear when we least expect them... while we’re indoors sheltered for winter. Sometimes this weed is overlooked until a throng of scattered clumps is practically waving at passersby. At that point, we get panicked phone calls here at Super-Sod.
Wild Garlic can seem like it’s here to stay for life. Thanks to the life-support the bulbs provide (bulbs are storage organs after all, built for getting plants through tough times), it’s an adaptable, drought-tolerant weed that withstands mowing and incorrect herbicide treatment.
As the names imply, this weed is food. Onion. Garlic. It’s edible! All parts can be used in recipes: bulb, leaves, and bulblets. The recipes say to use the bulb like pearl onions (after peeling the outer layer) and the green shoots like chives. While other wild onions are also edible, the only caution is to make sure you’ve correctly identified them to rule out the group of Death Camus species (head the name here too!), which I have never seen in person, but I read do not smell like onions or garlic, so always testing for the onion/garlic smell is a sound identification practice.
Pre-emergent herbicide: While effective for seeded weeds, preventive herbicide is unfortunately not effective for control because Wild Garlic spreads mostly by bulblets and bulbils; seed dispersion is more of a backup plan than the weed’s primary means of spreading.
Maintain a healthy, dense lawn to prevent the establishment of Wild Garlic weeds from bulbils and occasional seeds. Proper mowing, watering, and fertilization practices will help create a strong turf that can outcompete weeds. Also, avoid overwatering, as that can encourage weed growth.
Mowing, though it releases the pungent odor, does prevent aerial bulbils from forming and spreading
When hand weeding or digging Wild Garlic, you’ll have more success if you do so when the soil is wet. I never use a shovel, but others do. I simply grab an entire clump by the leaves and hoist. Some bulbs might be left behind and, unfortunately, they will multiple . . . to be yanked out of wet soil at a later date.
Breakage is common, especially when the soil is dry, leading to regrowth, so repeated hand digging is probable.
Post-emergent herbicide: We recommend products with a combination of three herbicides, especially 2,4-D and dicamba as the active ingredients. Spray Wild Garlic when it’s young and you’ll use less chemicals. We sell broadleaf herbicide for weed control in our stores.
Multiple applications are often required due to the plant’s waxy leaves and bulb reserves.
For best results, use a surfactant to help the herbicide remain on the waxy leaves longer.
Timing: late fall through early spring when the plant is actively growing and air temperatures are above 65 degrees F.
A “kill all” herbicide is effective in non-turf areas.
Apply according to the product label and target young plants for best results. Always follow safety guidelines when using chemical treatments.
There's much more to learn from these University and Botanical websites:
Clemson Home & Garden Information Center: https://hgic.clemson.edu/weed-of-the-month-wild-garlic/
UGA Extension Service: https://turf.caes.uga.edu/pest-management/weeds/grass-like-weeds/wild-garlic.html
NC State Extension Service: https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/allium-vineale/
Tennessee-Kentucky Plant Atlas: https://tennessee-kentucky.plantatlas.usf.edu/plant/species/1153
One common look-alike is Wild Onion (Allium canadense), which shares many characteristics, but has flat leaves instead of round, hollow ones. Both show up in lawns, and both are highly pungent edibles. Here is more information from Clemson University about Wild Onions: https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/wild-garlic-wild-onion-2/
Questions? Leave a comment below.
If you're a weed aficionado like me, check back here for future weed profiles. Until then, happy weeding!
All pictures by Hillary Thompson and Nina Johnson.