Allium canadense, the Canada onion, Canadian garlic, wild garlic, meadow garlic and wild onion is a perennial plant native to eastern North America from Texas to Florida to New Brunswick to Montana. The species is also cultivated in other regions as an ornamental and as a garden culinary herb. The plant is also reportedly naturalized in Cuba.

Description

Allium canadense has an edible bulb covered with a dense skin of brown fibers. The plant also has strong onion odor and taste.

Crow garlic (Allium vineale) is similar, but it has a strong garlic taste. When present, the flowers are hermaphroditic (both male and female organs) and are pollinated by American bees (not honeybees) and other insects. It typically flowers in the spring and early summer, from May to June.

thumb|Allium canadense var. hyacinthoides in the [[Wichita Mountains of southwest Oklahoma.]]

Varieties

The bulblet-producing form is classified as A. canadense var. canadense. but it is now known that the cultivated tree onion is a hybrid between the common onion (A. cepa) and Welsh onion (A. fistulosum), classified as A. × proliferum.

Five varieties of the species are widely recognized: People in the Cherokee Nation and Chickasaw Nation continue the tradition of picking and cooking wild onions in early spring. Various Native American tribes also used the plant for other purposes: for example, rubbing the plant on the body for protection from insect, lizard, scorpion, and tarantula bites.

The whole plant can be eaten raw, with the tougher outer layers removed. It can also be cooked and included in any recipe calling for onions. Additionally, long term consumption of wild onion bulbs reduces iodine uptake by the thyroid gland. This can worsen iodine deficiency for people with a diet that is low in iodine. Horses are vulnerable to developing hemolytic anemia from eating wild onion leaves.

Notes

References

Further reading

  • Wild Onion: Allium Canadense
  • Plants For A Future: Allium canadense
  • https://web.archive.org/web/20071201164741/http://lactarius.com/courses/spring_flora/allcan.htm
  • http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/bio406d/images/pics/all/allium_canadense.htm