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Scientific Name
Synonyms
Family
Common Names
Origin
Cultivation
Naturalised Distribution
Habitat
Habit
Distinguishing Features
Stems and Leaves
Flowers and Fruit
Reproduction and Dispersal
Environmental Impact
Other Impacts
Legislation
Management
Similar Species
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Click on images to enlarge

large infestation (Photo: Trevor James)

habit growing in a grassland (Photo: Trevor James)

leaves (Photo: Trevor James)

close-up of leaf base and stem, showing the leaf sheath (Photo: Trevor James)

a flower bud and leaf (Photo: Trevor James)

cluster of bulbils and remains of papery bract (Photo: Trevor James)

the bulbils sometimes have green leaf-like bracts between them (Photo: Trevor James)

mature bulbils (Photo: Trevor James)

close-up of seeds (Photo: Steve Hurst at USDA PLANTS Database)

bulbs (Photo: Trevor James)

close-up of a bulb (Photo: Trevor James)

Allium vineale

Scientific Name

Allium vineale L.

Synonyms

Allium vineale L. var. compactum (Thuill.) Lej.

Family

Alliaceae (Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT and Western Australia)
Liliaceae (Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia)

Common Names

crow garlic, false garlic, field garlic, scallions, stag garlic, stag's garlic, wild garlic, wild onion

Origin

Native to north-western Africa (i.e. Algeria and Morocco), the Canary Islands, Europe and western Asia (i.e. Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan).

Cultivation

Crow garlic (Allium vineale) is also occasionally grown in gardens as a culinary plant.

Naturalised Distribution

Widely naturalised in the temperate regions of south-eastern Australia. It is most common and widespread in Victoria, and is particularly abundant in the north-central parts of that state. Locally common or scattered in some parts of southern New South Wales, south-eastern South Australia and Tasmania, and occasionally recorded from other parts of New South Wales. Crow garlic (Allium vineale) was also naturalised in south-western Western Australia, but it has not been collected from this state since 1965.

Also widely naturalised in other parts of the world, including in New Zealand and large parts of North America.

Habitat

Mainly a weed of temperate regions. It is usually found growing in crops (particularly cereal crops), gardens, along roadsides, in waste areas and disturbed sites, and in pastures and grasslands.

Habit

An upright (i.e. erect), long-lived (i.e. perennial), herbaceous plant usually growing from 30-60 cm tall, but sometimes reaching up to 1 m in height. The short-lived aboveground parts re-grow each autumn or spring from an underground bulb and die back again during the summer.

Distinguishing Features

Stems and Leaves

The flowering stems are round in cross-section (i.e. cylindrical), pithy, and unbranched. These stems are green in colour and hairless (i.e. glabrous).

The relatively sparse leaves (usually only 3-5 on each plant) are alternately arranged with sheaths that enclose the lower part of the stems. These leaves are narrow and very elongated in shape (15-60 cm long and 2-6 mm wide), with numerous veins running lengthwise (i.e. longitudinally). They are hollow and cylindrical (i.e. terete) at first, but become channelled on one side, and are hairless (i.e. glabrous). The leaves also give off a rather unpleasant onion-like odour.

Flowers and Fruit

The 'flower clusters' (2-5 cm across), which are borne at the tips of the stems (i.e. in terminal umbels), are initially enclosed in a papery bract that comes to a stiff elongated point. This sheath opens to reveal a cluster of bulbils and sometimes also a few flowers. The flowers, when present, are white, pink, or greenish in colour and borne on stalks (i.e. pedicels) 1.5-2 cm long. They have six 'petals' (i.e. tepals or perianth segments) 3-4 mm long. The 'bulbils' (about 5 mm across) are initially red or reddish-brown in colour, smooth in texture and shiny in appearance and sometimes have numerous elongated, twisted, leaf-like bracts between them. Up to 300 of these bulbils can be contained in the 'flower clusters'. Flowering occurs mostly during late spring and summer.

The seeds, which are not commonly produced, are black and about 3-4 mm long. They are contained in small capsules (also about 3-4 mm long).

Reproduction and Dispersal

This plant reproduces mainly in a vegetative manner via bulbs, bulblets and bulbils, though it sometimes also produces seed. It survives from year to year by its long-lived underground bulbs. These bulbs (15-30 mm across) and have a soft white exterior and up to six smaller bulbs (i.e. bulblets) can be produced around the base of each mature bulb. The smaller bulblets (5-15 mm across) have hard brown fibrous exteriors.

Bulbs and bulblets can be spread about when soil is moved or cultivated. The bulbils and seeds may be dispersed in contaminated agricultural produce (e.g. hay and grain), and also by machinery, animals or in water.

Environmental Impact

Crow garlic (Allium vineale) is regarded as an environmental weed in South Australia, New South Wales, Tasmania and Victoria. Though this species is mainly seen as a pest of agriculture, it is also spreading and becoming troublesome in natural habitats.

For example, in South Australia it is listed as a common environmental weed in the Adelaide region and as an invasive plant in bushland in the Adelaide Hills Council district. Crow garlic (Allium vineale) also appears on some local and regional environmental weed lists in Victoria (e.g. in the City of Mitcham, Brimbank City and the Goulburn Broken Catchment).

Crow garlic (Allium vineale) is also reported to be having some localised impacts on remnant natural vegetation and rare native plants in Victoria. It has been recorded in Central Creek Grassland, a reserve of state significance that contains a piece of remnant Western Basalt Plains Grassland. In particular, it is seen as a threat to small populations of rye beetle grass (Tripogon loliiformis) in this reserve. This native species is rare in Victoria and inhabits a specialised niche in the grassland on the shallow mossy verges of exposed boulders. Crow garlic (Allium vineale) and other weed species are thought to be altering the structure of this niche, by increasing organic mulching and accelerating soil deposition among the moss mats.

Other Impacts

Crow garlic (Allium vineale) is an important weed in cereal crops, pastures and vineyards in many regions of the world, including parts of Europe (e.g. England, Spain, Germany, Italy, Turkey and Sweden), eastern and western USA and New Zealand. It is also an important weed of cereals and pastures in some parts of south-eastern Australia, and particularly in the north central region of Victoria.

This species may not have a great effect on crop yields or pasture productivity, but its impacts are manifested in other ways. In particular, it contaminates agricultural products such as milk, meat and grain. These products then acquire a strong garlic or onion-like taste and/or smell, reducing their value or rendering them useless. The risk of contamination is particularly apparent in cereal crops as the bulbil clusters shatter readily into individual bulbils during harvesting, and because of their size and shape they cannot be easily separated from cereal grains by mechanical harvestors.

Legislation

This species is declared under legislation in the following states and territories:

Management

For information on the management of this species see the following resources:

Similar Species

Crow garlic (Allium vineale) may be sometimes confused with three-cornered garlic (Allium triquetrum), greathead garlic (Allium ampeloprasum), wild onion (Nothoscordum borbonicum), onion weed (Asphodelus fistulosus), and dune onion weed (Trachyandra divaricata). These species can be distinguished by the following differences:

Native species, such as vanilla lily (Sowerbaea laxiflora), may also be confused with crow garlic (Allium vineale) when not in flower. However, these native species don't smell like garlic or produce bulbils.