Allium vineale |
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cow garlic, crow garlic, field garlic, short-beak agoseris, vineyard onion, wild chives, wild garlic |
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Bulbs | 5–20, clustered, stipitate, hard-shelled, asymmetric, ovoid, 1–2 × 1–2 cm; outer coats enclosing bulbs, brownish to yellowish, membranous, vertically striate, splitting into parallel strips and fibers, cells arranged in ± wavy rows, vertical; inner coats white to light brown, cells obscure, vertically elongate. |
Leaves | persistent, green at anthesis, 2–4, sheathing at least proximal 1/2 scape; blade hollow below middle, terete, cylindric or filiform, not carinate, 20–60 cm × 2–4 mm, margins entire. |
Scape | persistent, solitary, erect, terete, 30–120 cm × 1.5–4 mm. |
Umbel | persistent, erect, ± compact, 0–50-flowered, subglobose to ovoid or hemispheric, flowering pedicels all or in part replaced by bulbils; bulbils sessile, basally narrowed, 4–6 × 2–3 mm; spathe bract caducous, 1, 2–several-veined, ovate, apex caudate, beaked, beak ± equaling or longer than base. |
Flowers | campanulate, 3–4 mm; tepals erect, greenish to purple, elliptic-lanceolate, ± equal, withering in fruit, margins entire, apex obtuse; stamens exserted, outer 3 filaments without appendages, inner 3 filaments with 2 prominent lateral appendages; anthers purple; pollen white; ovary crestless; style exserted, linear, ± equaling stamen; stigma capitate, scarcely thickened, unlobed; flowering pedicel 10–20 mm. |
Seed | coat shining; cells smooth. |
2n | = 32, 40. |
Allium vineale |
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Phenology | Flowering Jun–Aug. |
Habitat | Disturbed areas often adjacent to agricultural lands |
Elevation | 0–700 m (0–2300 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; AR; CA; CT; DC; DE; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MO; MS; NC; NJ; NY; OH; OK; PA; RI; SC; TN; VA; WV; ON; QC; Europe [Introduced in North America]
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Discussion | Allium vineale is also expected to be found in Wisconsin and Texas; specimens were not seen. It is a noxious weed, apparently introduced from Europe in colonial times. The small, wheat-sized bulbils frequently contaminated wheat grown in infested areas. Bread made from such wheat was garlic-flavored, and cows grazing in infested pastures produce garlic-flavored milk. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 26, p. 237. |
Parent taxa | Liliaceae > Allium |
Sibling taxa | |
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 299. (1753) |
Web links |
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