Garlic mustard
Alliaria petiolata
Family · Brassicaceae · Irritating
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The wood-edge plant whose leaves smell distinctly of garlic when crushed, despite having no relation to garlic at all. It is a crucifer, and the leaf is the seasoning.
Oak woods · Roadsides and waste ground · Streams and ditches · Walls and rocks
Also known asjack-by-the-hedge, hedge garlic
How to tell it
An upright stem to a metre. Lower leaves kidney-shaped, long-stalked, with coarse rounded teeth; upper leaves triangular or heart-shaped and more pointed. Small white four-petalled cross flowers at the top. Slender long pods, upright and held away from the stem. The garlic smell when rubbed is decisive.
What it is confused with
Herb Robert
Geranium robertianum
They grow on the same wood edge and both get crushed for the smell. Garlic mustard smells of garlic and has entire kidney-shaped leaves with white four-petalled flowers; herb Robert smells bad, has leaves divided into five and pink five-petalled flowers.
What it is for
A traditional seasoning across northern Europe, raw leaves in sauces and salads, tasting between garlic and mustard. Traditional use. It contains glucosinolates and small amounts of cyanide and is not eaten in quantity or raw every day. In the United States it is among the most destructive forest invaders there are.
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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