is a name which should apply to plants of true garlic, Allium sativum, growing in the wild; but in practice it is used of other plants in the genus which do grow in the wild and do possess at least some garlic-like characteristics.
In Britain the most important species to which the name applies is A. ursinum, also known as ‘bear's garlic’ (a name echoed in other languages) and more fittingly as ramsons. This name comes from hramsan, the plural of the Old English hramsa; so, as Geoffrey Grigson (1955) points out, ramsons is a double plural. Yet other names include badger's garlic, devil's garlic (cf. the Swiss Teufelsknoblauch), gypsy's onions (cf. the German Zigeuner Knoblauch), and a quartet of hostile names from Somerset: snake's food, stinking Jenny, stinking lilies, and onion stinkers.
Wild garlic has its merits. Grigson comments:
Not to be despised, these white stars and viridian leaves because of a garlic smell. Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote of a wood ‘curled all over with bright green garlic’ (in his journal in 1871), and in blossom or leaf Ramsons is one of the most beautiful floorings. Gerard wrote that in the Low Country fish sauce was made from the leaves, which ‘maye very well be eaten in April and Maie with butter, of such as are of a strong constitution, and labouring men.’
Europe has other species which may be called wild garlic. A. vineale (also known as field garlic, ail des vignes in French) is too strong for most tastes, although the tops of the young leaves, in spring, can be added to a green salad.
In N. America, wild garlic is called ramp and could indicate any of several species, but is most often used for A. canadense, whose other common names are Canada onion and meadow leek. This species has sweet and palatable bulbs and also bears clusters of bulbils at the flower head. These clusters can be pickled entire to make an attractive relish. The plants as a whole may be cooked like leeks. Gibbons (1962) provides both praise and cooking instructions.
More ‘wild garlics’ occur in S. Africa, in the form of Tulbaghia spp, whose bulbs are usually too strong for kitchen use but whose leaves have a good garlicky flavour.
See also hedge garlic.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
Gibbons, Euell (1962), Stalking the Wild Asparagus, New York: David McKay.
Grigson, Geoffrey (1955), The Englishman's Flora, London: Phoenix House.
