Rosy garlic
Allium roseum
Family · Amaryllidaceae · Irritating
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The prettiest wild allium in the Peninsula: a loose umbel of pale pink star-shaped flowers atop a bare stem, in fields and olive groves in spring.
Fields and pasture · Roadsides and waste ground · Scrubland · Town and roadside
Also known asrose garlic
How to tell it
An open rounded umbel with ten to thirty pale pink or nearly white flowers, each with six star-shaped segments and a darker midvein. Flat, narrow leaves, not cylindrical. Some populations replace part of the flowers with bulbils. A clear garlic smell when crushed.
What it is confused with
Angel's tears
Narcissus triandrus
Out of flower, the leaves and bulbs are confused. The allium smells of garlic; the daffodil smells of nothing and its bulb is violently emetic. Once again the smell decides.
Open sheet →What it is for
Traditionally used as seasoning throughout the Mediterranean basin, leaves and bulb, milder than common garlic. The same rule as always applies: no garlic smell means it is not garlic, and without certainty it does not go in the mouth.
Traditionally used as food. This is not permission to eat it.