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I harvested what thought was wild garlic today, April 15th, but I have a doubt now. I heard the plant can look at lot like meadow saffron and lilys of the valley, both of which are potentially deadly. Here is a picture I took today in Edinburgh, Scotland and I should also indicate that these leaves did have a good smell of garlic.

enter image description here

If you cannot identify it from such a distance I will go back this week and take better pictures.

I took a picture of another plant that I thought was wild garlic (a few hundred meters from the picture above):

enter image description here

Alina
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Aegis
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4 Answers4

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Here you can see Lily of the Valley (left) and Wild garlic (right) in the same photo. As you can see, Lily of the Valley usually has two leafs, one wrapping the other on the stem, while Wild garlic only has one leaf.

enter image description here

Image found at Landleys kök (in Swedish).

md2perpe
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The garlic smell is a pretty good initial indicator: the main danger when foraging for Allium ursinum is lily of the valley, which doesn’t smell garlicky.

If you want to double-check, look at the cross-section of the stem. It should be triangular to half-moon shaped (sorry for the somewhat blurry pictures):enter image description here

The underside of the leaves will be matte while lily of the valley has roughly the same color and sheen on both sides. When you look at the general appearance, wild garlic has softer leaves which tend to bend over a bit once they get close to the final size.

Wild garlic grows out of little bulbs, but the connected part is in the soil. Above ground, it will appear as separate leaves (lily of the valley has a common stem above soil):

enter image description here

And a patch as grown as yours will already have formedflower buds, which you can see if you push the leaves aside:

enter image description here Once the flowers open, an id is pretty straightforward - and you can probably smell them from a distance.

I enlarged and checked your photos and marked flower buds:

enter image description here
enter image description here

Just a quick remark re. confusing wild garlic and lily of the valleym The young wild garlic leaves appear a lot narrower and upright, which makes them much more similar to lily of the valley. Once they start to droop, the differences become more obvious. This picture was taken about two weeks ago and I’d estimate yours looked like that about three weeks ago: enter image description here

Stephie
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Yes, it seems wild garlic (Allium ursinum).

Take always one leaf and verify that it has a stalk. Than it is ok, and take the next one. Unfortunately poison plants are similar (e.g. Lily of the valley: Convallaria majalis, which growth also on the same place, on the same period, and Colchicum). So be very careful. They are deadly with very small portions (and every year someone did last supper with such plants).

Smell it is not a good indicator, after you touch the first Allium ursinum: all thing you touch it will have garlic smell.

Giacomo Catenazzi
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Possibly, if there's a garlicky smell to the leaves, but it is difficult to tell them apart at this time of year, when they're not in flower. However, that patch in the first photograph appears to be about to flower - there are stems sticking up with obvious flower buds on, but they do not look typical of an allium flower bud, more like Convallaria in fact - but those leaves do not have a garlic scent. I'd just pop back sometime later in the week or next week and check those flowers out; as soon as you see them, you'll know for sure. This might help though http://paulkirtley.co.uk/2012/lily-of-the-valley-convallaria-majalis-ramsons-allium-ursinum/

Bamboo
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