The excitement at many farmers markets has reached fever pitch. No, it’s not ramp season quite yet, but rather another niche allium’s star time of year. Wild garlic, a cousin of chives that grows from March to May, is in full bloom, officially announcing the height of spring. Thanks to its mild, garlicky flavor and delicate, star-shaped flowers, the plant (Allium Ursinum) makes a gorgeous and flavorful addition to light dishes—and, best of all, it has a ton of medicinal, detoxifying properties.
But that’s only part of its charm. Wild garlic also goes by a bunch of really fun names. Here are just a few: bear’s garlic (they love it!), gypsy’s onions, ramsons, buckrams, devil’s garlic, and stinking Jenny. Yes, stinking Jenny! Who knew?
How to recognize wild garlic
Wild garlic, as the name suggests, grows wildly in the forests and shaded areas of its native Europe and Asia, as well as in the Pacific Northwest, Ohio, and eastern half of the United States. Thus, it’s an amateur forager’s delight. Look for it while you’re out hiking or even on your daily walk through the park; a whiff of garlic in the air is your first clue that it may be nearby. The bulbous, perennial plant has spear-shaped leaves and white, star-shaped flowers; it looks a bit similar to Lily of the Valley. If you spot a likely contender, simply rub its leaves between your fingers to decide; the pungent smell of garlic will confirm your prize. The bulb, leaves, stem, and flowers of wild garlic are all edible, so gather up as much as you’d like. (Just be sure that it is, in fact, wild garlic before you eat it—Lily of the Valley is poisonous when consumed, so confirming that garlicky-scent and referencing photos online is definitely key.)
Wild garlic is a member of the Liliaceae family, just like regular garlic, leek, onion, shallots, and chives. Aside from growing in the wild, it’s often intentionally planted in gardens, on balconies, and in flowerbeds for decorative purposes. It blooms through May which means that its season is short—just like life!—so, carpe diem and eat it now!
The health benefits of wild garlic
Wild garlic appears to have a host of healthy properties and has long been used in Europe and Asia as a homeopathic remedy for everything from toothaches to bloating to the flu. “Wild garlic has been known in folk medicine for its health-promoting and disease-preventing properties associated with minerals (Fe, P, Na, Cu), vitamins (A, C), dietary fibers and sulphur-containing and phenolic compounds,” states one recent scientific study that analyzed at the health benefits of adding wild garlic to pasta dishes—yes, that was a real study! The findings yielded science-backed permission to eat as much wild garlic with spaghetti as you’d like: “Enrichment with wild garlic may provide higher functional potential to pasta by increasing the content of phenolics, flavonoids and minerals as well as by improving its antioxidant activity,” it found.
While there isn’t a ton of other research to back up many of the anecdotal health claims of wild garlic specifically, alliums in general have been studied extensively—so it’s safe to assume that wild garlic offers many of the same benefits. “The bioactive compounds in alliums mainly include organosulfur compounds, polyphenols, dietary fibers, and saponins,” a recent study confirms. “Flavonoids, particularly flavonols from alliums, have been demonstrated to have the antioxidant, anticancer, hypolipidemic, anti-diabetic, cardioprotective, neuroprotective, and antimicrobial activities,” the study states.