Nature Bulletin No. 184    March 21, 1981
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
George W. Dunne, President
Roland F. Eisenbeis, Supt. of Conservation

****:WILD ONIONS

In 1673-74, when Father Marquette and his party journeyed from what 
is now Green Bay, Wisconsin, and returned by way of what is now 
Chicago. It is recorded that one of their chief foods was the "wild 
onion": probably the Wild Leek and the Meadow Garlic in the woods 
of Wisconsin, and the Nodding Onion so abundant in the wet prairies 
around Chicago.

Two of the first plants to push through the ground in spring, along 
with the skunk cabbage, are the wild leek and the wild garlic. A 
woodsman will eat handfuls of their tender leaves, which is all right if 
he stays in the woods away from people. Believe it or not, leeks, 
garlics and onions are "outlaw" members of the lily family. Their 
flavor and odor are due to an oil-like vegetable compound of sulfur 
which is volatile and dissipated by heat, making them more palatable 
when cooked -- particularly if boiled In 3 different waters.

The wild leek, which grows in rich moist woodland soils, has a cluster 
of bulbs on a short underground stem, and 2 or 3 broad flat tongue-like 
leaves which wilt and disappear before the plant blooms in June or 
July. The flower stalk, 4 to 5 inches tall, is topped by an umbel (like 
the ribs of an umbrella) of a number of white flowers. Cows will eat all 
the wild leek they can find, but it taints their milk and butter. The 
plant was a favorite food of the early hunters and fur trappers. pioneers 
had "leek parties" featured by leek soup.

Wild garlic, or meadow garlic, is common in moist meadows and 
moist open woodlands. It has only one small bulb, much sweeter and 
more palatable than those of the wild leek, and very narrow flat leaves. 
It blooms in May or June, and some or all of the pinkish flowers, at the 
top of a stem from 8 to 4 inches tall, are usually replaced by bulblets 
that are excellent for pickles. The underground bulb, if gathered in 
early spring or late autumn, makes mighty good creamed soup. The 
young leaves are good in salads, greens, or for seasoning.

Field garlic or Crow garlic, introduced into our eastern states from 
Europe, has spread as far west as Missouri. Preferring fields, pastures 
and lawns, and difficult to get rid of. It has a very offensive odor and is 
one of our most evil weeds. From its very small hard bulb, rise many 
slender hollow leaves and a flower stalk bearing a dense umbel of 
small greenish or purplish flowers which are replaced by bulblets 
about the shape and size of a grain of wheat. If eaten by cows, their 
milk is worthless. Wheat containing the bulblets is unfit for flour until 
they are removed.

The nodding onion has an oblong bulb from which grow very slender 
flat leaves and a 12 to 24-inch flower stalk curving downward at the 
top, with a dangling umbel of rose-colored or white bell-shaped 
flowers.

It grows on banks, hillsides and prairies in many parts of the United 
States, and formerly was so abundant in Illinois prairies that the 
landscape was tinged with pink when it bloomed in midsummer. The 
bulb is good to eat if parboiled, and excellent when pickled. Bulb and 
leaves can be used for soup flavoring, and the leaves can be cooked 
like asparagus or used as greens. An old home remedy for coughs and 
colds was onion syrup; and a remedy for earache was a little bulb of 
wild garlic cooked and placed, piping hot, in your ear.

Caution: Some plants with bulbs and leaves resembling onions, but 
lacking the familiar odor, are among the deadliest poisonous plants 
including the Death Camass and Fly Poison or Stagger Grass -- both 
responsible for the deaths of many grazing animals.

Some people boil wild onions in three waters and then throw them all 
away, including the onions.