Lé / jinpifi á- AMÑl ilV3 USDA policy does not permit discrimination be- cause of age, race, color, national origin, sex, or religion. Any person who believes he or she has been discrîminated against in any USDA-related activity should write immediately to the Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. 20250 11 This publication reports research involving pesti- cides. It does not contain recommendations for their use, nor does it imply that the uses discussed here have been registered. All uses of pesticides must be registered by appropriate State and/or Federal agencies before they can be recommended. CAUTION: Pesticides can be injurious to hu- mans, domestic anipials, beneficial insects, desir- able plants, and fish or other wildlife—if they are not handled or applied properly. Use all pes- ticides selectively and carefully. Follow recom- mended practices for the disposal of surplus pesticides and pesticide containers. This bulletin supersedes Agriculture Handbook 298, "Wild Garlic, Its Characteristics and Control." Washington, P.C. Issued July 1976 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Price 40 cents; 25% discount allowed on orders of 100 or more to one address Washington, D.C. 20402 Stock No. 001-000-03526-6 There is a minimum charge of $1.00 for each mail order iii CONTENTS Page Origin and distribution 1 Plants that resemble wild garlic 2 Description and growth habit 3 Classification 3 Structure of the wild garlic plant 3 Plant types 4 Bulb types 5 Reproductive cycles 8 Wild garlic: a pest 12 Pest in small grains 12 Pest of pastures and hay fields 13 Pest around homes and in noncrop areas 14 Control and eradication 14 Cultural control 14 Chemical control 16 Chemical control in turf and pastures 18 Chemical control in small grain fields 19 Chemical control in waste areas 19 Precautions 19 Parasites and diseases 20 Literature cited ^ 21 IV WILD GARLIC Life Cycle and Contror Elroy J. Peters, research agronomist, North Central Region, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Columbia, Mo., and J. F. Stritzke, associate professor, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Okla. Wild garlic (Allium vineale L.) products. Other common names is a troublesome weed in the that have been used for Allium United States. Significant losses vineale L. are field garlic, meadow result from the "onion" odor and garlic, garlic, onion, crow garlic, ñavor that wild garlic gives to wild onion, and vineyard garlic milk, small grains, and meat (3,27y ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION The geographical origin of wild Canary Islands (12). Wild garlic garlic is difficult to determine. It has spread from Europe to Aus- probably originated in the area tralia (2), New Zealand (38), and of the Mediterranean Sea (18). the United States. It is particu- Wild garlic is found in many larly troublesome in Sweden, areas of the world. It has spread England, and the United States throughout western and central (13,20,27,28). Europe and is found as far north Wild garlic was probably in- as southern Norway, Sweden, and troduced into the United States Finland and east to the Dneiper, from France in the 17th or early Crimea, and Transcaucasian re- part of the 18th century (3,15). gions of the USSR (13,31). After being introduced into the It is^ rare in Austria ; is fairly United States, it became a serious common in Hungary, Italy, Spain, weed problem. Pipal cited a re- and Portugal (12) ; and has been port showing that as early as reported in North Africa and the 1754, in Philadelphia, an infes- ^ Prepared in cooperation with Mis- souri Agricultural Experiment Station ^ Italic numbers in parentheses refer (Journal Series No. 7203). to Literature Cited, p. 21. tation of wild garlic in a wheat- New York, Ohio, and Michigan field was so heavy that one garlic (10). It is a serious pest on the head was present for every nine eastern seaboard and west to heads of wheat (28). Kansas and Oklahoma (30). Wild Wild garlic has continued to garlic has been mentioned as the spread and now infests a large cause of garlic-ñavored milk in part of the United States. It grows as far south as Georgia, Wyoming (6). Infestations also Mississippi, and Arkansas; and are present in western Oregon as far north as Massachusetts, and Washington.' PLANTS THAT RESEMBLE WILD GARLIC In the United States, wild gar- lic sometimes grows in associa- tion with such other bulb formers as Ornithogalum umbellatum L., Allium oleraceum L., A cernuum Roth, A. mutabile Michx., A. canadense L., Hemerocallis fulva L., and Zigadenus nuttallii Gray. The terms "wild garlic" and "wild onion" are often used in- terchangeable for many of the bulb formers. In the United PN-4408 States, the species most commonly Figure 1.—Cross sections of leaf blades found with wild garlic are wild of star-of-Bethlehem, wild onion, and onion (A. canadense L.) and star- wild garlic: A, leaf of star-of-Bethle- of-Bethlehem (Ornithogalum um- hem showing white striation at the center of the solid flat leaf; B, flat bellatum L.). solid leaf of wild onion; C, round, Wild garlic can be distinguished hollow leaf of wild garlic. from wild onion and star-of- Bethlehem by its striate, nearly round hollow leaves (fig. 1, C), coat of wild onion is fibrous which are attached at the lower matted. Star-of-Bethlehem does half of the plant. Wild onion and not have the "onion" odor of wild star-of-Bethlehem have their solid garlic or wild onion. flat leaves attached at the base The wild onion, like wild garlic, of the plant. Moreover, wild garlic begins growth in mid-August or has underground hardshell bulbs, early September and matures in which are absent on wild onion and star-of-Bethlehem. Also, the • Personal communication from Dr. old bulb coat of wild garlic is Marion Ownbey, Dept., of Botany, thin and membranous, but the Wash., State Univ. late May or early June. Wild showy white flowers appear, and onion grows 1 to 2 feet tall. It then tiie plants mature and dis- has flat leaves (ñg. 1, B), which appear before warm weather. arise from the base of the plant. Star-of-Bethlehem seldom grows Star-of-Bethlehem often is over 8 inches tall. It has flat planted as an ornamental and leaves, which have a white stripe then spreads to lawns, gardens, yards, and waste places. It begins down their center (fig. 1, A). The growth soon after the ground leaves arise from the base of the thaws in early spring. Small, plant. DESCRIPTION AND GROWTH HABIT Classification forma capsvliferum Koch, with a umbel consisting of flowers only. Wild garlic is a bulbous peren- Three forms of wild garlic nial monocot that has classically have been îdentifled in England, been included in the Liliaceae but their status as varieties has family. However, Hutchinson been questioned by Richens (SI). (H) includes Allium in the Transitions between forms are Amaryllidaceae family. He con- often noted, and they appear to siders the umbellate inflorescence be dependent upon Mendelian to be of greater taxonomic im- allelic genes (15). Most Allium portance for classification than species have 16 chromosomes, but the character of superior or in- Allium vineale L. has 32 chromo- ferior ovary, which is usually somes, a number that indicates used to distinguish Liliaceae from that A. vineale L. is tetraploid Amaryllidaceae. Other workers (15). Apogamy is a common oc- support his views (5,26), currence in A. vineale. Five varieties or forms of Iltis (15) also observed what Allium vineale L. have been de- he thought to be genetic differ- scribed in the United States ences in color of aerial bulblets. (15). These are (a) forma typi- cum Beck, with a loose umbel Seed from plants with purple bulblets produced plants with containing both aerial bulblets purple leaf sheaths and seed from and flowers; (b) forma compac- plants with green bulblets pro- tum Thuill, with a compact head duced plants with green leaf consisting only of aerial bulblets, which are greenish or whitish; sheaths. (c) forma fuscenscens Ascherson and Graebner, with a head con- Structure of the Wild taining reddish bulbils ; (d) forma Garlic Plant crintium Jacob, with bulbils on Wild garlic looks much like the head tipped with long, green, cultivated onion. Figure 2 shows capillary appendages; and (e) a clump of wild garlic as seen 3 The flowers have a greenish to purple perianth with lanceolate to elliptic segments. The segments are obtuse to acutish and about îtî'V:- T PN-4409 Figure 2.—A typical clump of wild garlic in the spring, showing growth habit and plants of various sizes. The larger upright plants are scapi- gerous and the smaller plants are nonscapigerous. in spring. The leaves, two-ranked, have sheathing bases. The leaf blades are circular in cross sec- tion and hollow. The outer layers of a bulb of a growing wild garlic plant are formed from the sheathing bases of the foliage leaves. Plant Types Wild garlic consists of two plant types — scapigerous and nonscapigerous. The larger, scapi- gerous plant bears a scape, which PN-4410 produces aerial bulblets (ñg. 3) Figure 3.—Scapigerous garlic plant as and sometimes flowers (fig. 4). seen at maturity in June. Figure 4.—Umbels on scapes of wild garlic. The umbel on the left is a double umbel (single umbels are more common but plants may have as many as three or four) with aerial bulblets only. Umbel on the right contains bulblets and flowers (less common). as long as the stamens {10). Bulb Types Seeds of the scapigerous plant Four types of bulbs can be are black, flat on one side, and found on wild garlic at the end about one-eighth inch long.