Wild Onions are back!

The garlic mustard and wild violets are out here. Ramps and morels soon.--KV
 
Excellent! We keep a few chickens and I've been trying to come up with stuff to put in our omelets. I bet there's some wild onions in the alley or at least at the golf course behind our house.
 
DOC-CANADA said:
John, are you sure they're not Wild Garlic (Allium canadense)? If not, what species are they?

Doc
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Actually, there's both! The pic of the single bulb in hand is garlic. The large bunch is both. In Northampton Park, where I harvested these, both can be found. The thin, flat, grass-like onion, and the tubular garlic. The onions grow on the highest hill of the park in and around an open grassy field, while the garlic can be found in lower, more muddy trails and swamp. They often grow within mere yards of each other. Flavors are identical, with onion being dominant over garlic-ness. The only real difference for me is that harvesting the garlic is a dirtier job. :)
 
From a check of Peterson's Field Guide to Wildflowers: Field Garlic (Allium vineale) has hollow leaves and Wild Garlic (A. canadense) has leaves that are flattened and not hollow and both Garlics appear a couple of months before Wild Onion (A. stellatum) and Nodding Wild Onion (A. cernuum), that's why I was wondering which species they are.

Not that any of these things are really important as far as usage goes.

Doc

A check with Britton and Brown shows a few more species than I'm familiar with, but they don't seem to be growing in our area - the earliest one being Nuttall's Wild Onion (A. nuttalli) but it apparently grows: "On prairies, South Dakota to Colorado, Texas and Arizona". (page 500)

It's really easy (for me) to get location-centric and forget about things growing in different areas.

Also checked Gleason and there's no listing for season for Wild Garlic.
 
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Doc, thanks for keeping me honest! I'm not sure as to specific species. I know I should learn latin names, but I just get excited (and lazy) and go with colloquial names. Last year I'd settled on calling my two local species "Swamp Onion" and "Field Garlic." Not sure if these are accurate. Also, with the warm weather we've had, some plants have arrived early, such as spearmint. This leads to some minor discrepances for me when referencing seasonal guides.

The field garlic here grows taller and stronger than the swamp onion, which tends to fall under it's own weight eventually. Other than that and the flat vs. round leaves, I've noticed no differences.
 
John G said:
Doc, thanks for keeping me honest! I'm not sure as to specific species. I know I should learn latin names, but I just get excited (and lazy) and go with colloquial names. Last year I'd settled on calling my two local species "Swamp Onion" and "Field Garlic." Not sure if these are accurate. Also, with the warm weather we've had, some plants have arrived early, such as spearmint. This leads to some minor discrepances for me when referencing seasonal guides.

The field garlic here grows taller and stronger than the swamp onion, which tends to fall under it's own weight eventually. Other than that and the flat vs. round leaves, I've noticed no differences.
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Lol, Latin names are not popular with most people. I use them because on international forums, when talking about a particular plant, it's the only common reference point. Common names are subject to location. Wild Leeks (A. tricoccum) is a good example. That's what we call them up here. Hollowdweller, for example calls them Ramps. Apparently, they still taste the same.:rolleyes:

And how many times have you heard Cattails (Typha spp.) called Bullrushes (Scirpus spp.)? Makes a big difference if you're using Bullrushes for tinder rather than Cattail.

One other advantage for the user is sometimes books only reference the plants with binomials. Britton and Brown is a good example - in the first two volumes, the Genera Index is only in Latin. In the third volume it's in both Latin and English.

Doc
 
The ramps are in here in central minnesota. Just hiked out and picked a couple dozen. Big rain coming this weekend and after hopefully some morels, bone dry now. Bloodroots been out and jack in the pulpits are about 8 inches. Skunk Cabbage about a foot high at most.
 
That's soo cool. I'd love to find wild onions. How do these compare in taste to the white onion found in a grocery-the baseball sized ones?
 
Minnesota said:
That's soo cool. I'd love to find wild onions. How do these compare in taste to the white onion found in a grocery-the baseball sized ones?
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They have a more intense flavor, sometimes even downright spicy! This makes up for their limited size when compared to big store-bought onions.
 
its raining here now
warm and sunny tomorrow and over the wkend
morels will be popping for sure
 
Very cool, John G.

Nice to see you using this early Springs first bounty:)
I sure appreciate the pics.
Nice Hawk:thumbup:

Our violets have come and gone, in a few salads. We have the wild garlic nearby and just made chilli with them.

Omelets next.

Thanks Doc Canada for the additional info:D

Happy Woodswalking,
Mark
 
thanks for the pics! because of this thread and the other threads by mistwalker, i actually learned enough to spot this garlic while hiking last week:
field_garlic_01.jpg


dug up a few of them and sure enough it was garlic...my first find!
field_garlic_02.jpg
 
JV3 said:
thanks for the pics! because of this thread and the other threads by mistwalker, i actually learned enough to spot this garlic while hiking last week:
field_garlic_01.jpg


dug up a few of them and sure enough it was garlic...my first find!
field_garlic_02.jpg
Click to expand...

Nice! The same thing happened to me. I find the picture threads here in the WSS forum to be very inspirational. That, and the shared knowledge of other members makes this a great place to learn. Congrats on your find!
 
Foragers - Wild Onions/Garlic apparently have some very poisonous look alikes. If you're not aware of this, take some time to research. (This is not directed to anybody in particular, just a good thing for all of us to keep in mind).

Doc
 
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