Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

Wild Leek is a native perennial that first raises a cluster of basal leaves in early spring. Then the plant, in early Summer, sends up a flowering scape, at which time the leaves die back.

Leaves are medium green, smooth surfaces, smooth margins, acute tip and tapered to the base, which can have a short stalk where the leaf takes on some reddish coloration. They are ovate to ovate-elliptic in shape, and from 1-1/2 to 3 inches wide (15 to 90 mm) and 3x as long in var. tricoccum, but only 3/4 to 1-3/4 inches wide in var. burdickii. They are flat, without a keel (thicker center channel). They die back at flowering time.

Inflorescence: As the flowering scape (a stalk that is an above ground extension of the root) appears, leaves begin to whither away and disappear by the time the plant is in flower. The 4 to 12 inch erect scape is round, smooth, green to reddish green with a spathe at the top. The spathe drops away, leaving several bracts at the base, to expose an umbel (a rounded cluster), 1 to 2 inches wide, of 12 to 50 small flowers.

Flowers: Each flower has petals and sepals combined to form 6 tepals which are white to cream to yellowish, somewhat translucent, with smooth margins, oblong in shape. There are 6 stamens with white to yellow anthers, a single style and a 3-celled green ovary. Flowers and leaves have an onion odor.

Seed: The flowers mature to 3-part capsules with one shiny black seed per chamber. Seeds will persist through the winter on the dry erect scape. Seeds are slow to germinate requiring successive warn and cold moist periods. Outdoors if fresh seed is planted it will not germinate until the following year.

Varieties: Two varieties are found in North America and both are found in Minnesota - var. tricoccum has wider leaves and more flowers in the cluster; var. burdickii has leaf blades only 3/4 to 1-3/4 inches wide and about 12 to 18 flowers in the cluster. The MN DNR does not provide location data by variety. See page bottom for a list of other native Alliums in Minnesota.

Habitat: Wild Leek is a plant of the moist shady woods, not growing in exposed full sun locations, but some dappled sunlight during the growing season is good. The root is an ovoid bulb with fibrous roots; while a single bulb will start a plant, mature plants usually develop 2 to 6 bulbs on a short rhizome. The bulb is edible but small.

Names: The genus Allium is taken from the classical Latin name for garlic. The species tricoccum means '3-seeded' as in the seed capsule of this species. The author name for the plant classification, from 1789, - ‘Sol.’ is for Daniel Solander, (1733-1782), Swedish naturalist, cataloger of the natural history collections of the British Museum and who was on board the Endeavour on James Cook’s first round the world voyage as principal naturalist for Joseph Banks who led the scientific group on the voyage.

The assigned family class is in flux currently. A number of authorities moved the old world species of Allium from the Lily (Liliaceae) family and placed them in the Alliaceae. Most botanists accept that but the move of the new world species into the Alliaceae has been resisted by some. Minnesota authorities at the U of M Herbarium have accepted the move. Flora of North America discusses the reasoning but still lists them in the Lily family. In the newer classification scheme, the authorship has been assigned to ‘Aiton’ is for William Aiton (1731-1793), Scottish botanist, who succeeded Philip Miller as superintendent of the Chelsea Physic Garden and then became director of Kew Gardens, where he published Hortus Kewensis in 1789, the Garden’s catalogue of plants. Both Solander and Jonas Dryander worked with Aiton in producing the catalogue.

The alternate common name of 'Ramp' is somewhat obscure but it may be linked to the edible bulb. Some other plants with edible roots are also known as 'ramps', such as Campanula rapunculus, and the common name is thought to come from the Latin rapa for a turnip.

Comparisons: The scape, flowering after leaf die-back is unlike the other Alliums. Also the flat leaves, with a width of 15 to 90 mm, tapered base and no keel distinguishes this species from all the 95 others found in North America except for A. victorialis, which is found only in Alaska, but that species retains its leaves at flowering time.