Friday, 24 April 2015

Three cornered leek

If you smell garlic in the woods around now it's more than likely to be Ramsons (Allium ursinum), though it could be another member of the Allium family, the Three cornered leek (Allium triquetrum) who also favour similar habitats, although they can also be found on road sides and in meadows. Like Ramsons, all parts of the Three cornered leek are edible, either fresh of cooked: the bulbs, stems, flowers and leaves. You wont mistake the Three cornered leek for the Ramson; the flowers are very different, as are the leaves; one notable identifying feature of the Three cornered leek is, as its name suggests, that its stem is concavely triangular in cross-section. It'll be found growing in lush dense clumps, often in my experience, more leaf than flower; they are a native of the Mediterranean and can become invasive, so you'll often find that in populated areas they've sprung up on commons or waste ground where some gardener has dumped them. As always, be sure you're 100% certain of what picking when foraging.

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