Wild garlic (allium ursinum) might well be a tasty addition to the table:
Foraging for wild garlic: how, when and what to watch out for | New Scientist
As might the three-cornered leek (allium triquetrium):
All about Three Cornered Leek – Wild Walks Southwest
The latter is very much an invasive species, however:
This plant establishes dense territories that can overpower and outcompete other spring flowers, such as primroses and violets. Notably, in certain roadside verges and banks, it forms extensive stands that spread over considerable distances.
In the Channel Islands, there have been warnings this year about its spread:
A spokesperson for Agriculture, Countryside and Land Management Services (ACLMS) said the Allium triquetrum, also known as three-cornered leek or stinking onions, emerges early in the year, getting a head start on native plants such as bluebells.
Guernsey Bluebell Woods warning for walkers and photographers – BBC News
And this week, they’ve been hard at work:
More than 10,000 allium triquetrums, better known as stinking onions, have been removed from woods in Guernsey in 2023. The removal in Bluebell Woods has been part of a project headed by the Guernsey Conservation Volunteers (GCV) to remove the non-native species and allow bluebells to grow. The onions have dominated the woods in St Peter Port, destroying the bluebells and turning the woods white.
Angela Salmon, GCV operations director, said the onions needed to be removed if the bluebells were to thrive. She said: “They’re non-native, so they were brought here many, many years ago; in the 1840s, they were brought in and what’s happening is they’re starting to dominate the bluebells. We started working in mid-November and we’ve done 13 work parties so far, and that’s just over 200 hours of work in there. We’ve removed just over two one-tonne bags of the bulbs.”
More than 10,000 stinking onions removed from Bluebell Woods – BBC News
As one of the Friends of Glen Goyle working party members notes:
As you know quite a few of these “stinking onions”, as this news item calls them, have been removed from The Glen – but at some point there will need to be another attack on them.
Of course, some folk think they are white bluebells and pretty, not realising that they have killed off all our native bluebells. There’s a few Spanish bluebells needing to be removed too…
As this came up as a news item, I thought it worth mentioning now.
Remembering this time last year:
