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.
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.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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