IDENTITY RECORD

Wild garlic

SCIENTIFIC NAME

Allium ursinum

Description

I grow to between 20 and 50 cm tall. I’m known as bear’s garlic in France as legend says that I’m a spring treat for bears when they come out of hibernation.

Where and when can you find me in the reserve?

• I grow in the cool undergrowth in early spring. My umbels of white flowers can be spotted from April to June.  I bring a strong heady smell of garlic to the undergrowth.

What other species might you mistake me for?

• Be careful: before flowering, it’s easy to confuse me with lily of the valley and autumn crocus which are both highly toxic.

Although I grow in abundance in the undergrowth, because my bulb and leaves are edible I am picked intensively every year which disturbs and threatens my natural habitat.

Conservation status

• Red list of vascular plants in metropolitan France: Least Concern (LC);
• Red list of endangered vascular plants in Alsace: Least Concern (LC).

Remember that picking flowers and plants is prohibited in nature reserves.