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Ramson can be called the first spring delicacy. The spicy garlic scent of young plants is familiar to many. But in appearance, the culture is hardly distinguished from hellebore and lily of the valley. What is wild garlic: photo and description, its varieties, where, when and how it is collected - this will be discussed in the article.
What does wild garlic look like
Ramson is a perennial herbaceous bulbous plant. It has a triangular stem, reaching a height of 0.5 m. The leaves are lanceolate, shorter than the stem, up to 5 cm wide, their upper part is darker than the lower one. The bulb is small, elongated, with parallel membranes, splitting into fibers. Roots extend from it deep into the soil. The wild garlic flower has the shape of an umbrella, in the form of a hemisphere. Petals are white, up to 12 mm long. The capsule is spherical, with three sides, inside which there are seeds.
The plant has different names - bear onion, wild garlic, flask. Blooms in May-June. The flowers are fragrant, fragrant, beautiful, used in cooking and to decorate dishes. The leaves of wild garlic are tender and juicy, in appearance they are similar to lily of the valley, autumn crocus, hellebore. In order to accurately recognize the plant, it is necessary to carefully study the photo and description of wild garlic.
Varieties of wild garlic
There are two types of plants:
- Bear bow - compact form, leaf height - about 40 cm, has 3 - 4 leaf plates up to 5 cm wide. They appear already in March-April, after the snow melted and the soil warmed up. Bear onion, or wild garlic (pictured) is listed in the Red Book.
- Victory bow - there are several cone-shaped bulbs on a powerful root, the leaves of the plant are massive, they can reach a height of 1 m, the flowers are pale green.
The wild garlic of the type victorious onion grows successfully on acidic soils. Its frost resistance is higher than that of bear onions, the bulb is larger and the peduncle is denser. Like the first type, the victory bow is listed in the Red Book.
After the wild ramson was domesticated and began to be actively cultivated, breeders drew attention to it. Thanks to them, several new varieties have appeared with their own characteristics:
- Teddy bear - gives the earliest greens (up to 1.5 kg per square meter), the leaves are long, emerald, with a waxy bloom; the culture is not afraid of frost and excessive soil moisture;
- Bear Delicacy - a productive variety (up to 2 kg per square meter) with fleshy leaves up to 30 cm long, which are used for salting and pickling;
- Bear Ear - early ripening variety with a delicate and pleasant taste; green leaves, elongated, yield - up to 2.5 kg per square meter.
How wild garlic grows
Wild garlic (wild garlic) grows throughout Europe, Turkey, the Caucasus. Early fragrant greens are most commonly found in shaded lowlands. Ramson likes shade, moisture and coolness, so the places of its growth are coniferous, deciduous forests, thickets of alder trees, swampy places near rivers and lakes.
To grow wild garlic in your backyard, you need to know a few secrets:
- shade and moist soil - conditions for the successful growth of wild garlic;
- it is better to propagate plants by seeds, because in this case, survival is more reliable;
- you need to sow "before winter" so that the seeds lie at sub-zero temperatures for at least 100 days.
The growth of wild garlic takes a long time. The plant becomes adult only in the fourth year.
To grow bear onions from seeds, you must:
- Prepare the soil - dig up the ground, remove weeds, make drainage.
- Apply organic fertilizers.
- In September, sow wild garlic seeds into the grooves (at a distance of 20 cm). The seeding density is 10 g per square meter. Sprinkle with peat on top.
- Drizzle.
It is possible to sow in spring, for which it is required to harden the seeds in wet sand, then weed periodically and only after a year transplant to a permanent place.
Planting with bulbs is not particularly relevant due to low yields, but this method is also used:
- The best time to plant is mid-spring or early fall.
- Prepare the plot as for sowing.
- Plant the bulbs at a distance of 15 cm, deepening into the ground and sprinkle with peat.
When growing wild garlic, it is necessary to perform the following procedures:
- frequent watering
- loosening,
- weed control,
- top dressing.
The plant becomes demanding for such care at the age of two years. Prior to this, there is no urgent need to carry out all the activities.
What is the difference between wild garlic and hellebore and lily of the valley
Wild garlic is very similar to poisonous hellebore and lily of the valley.
Chemeritsa is a forest plant, belongs to the genus Melantievs. It has wide folded elliptical leaves, belongs to alkaloids, is very poisonous. Toxic substances cause heart failure and poisoning. One leaf is enough to get the symptoms of body intoxication after a while. At the same time, tincture and dusting are prepared from the root of hellebore. The powder helps in the treatment of head lice and cattle wounds. With the wrong, even external, use of a poisonous plant, you can get fatal poisoning.
To avoid this, you should know how to distinguish between plants. Leaves of wild garlic and hellebore are similar. But upon closer examination, differences can be identified. The leaves of the bulb are narrow, elongated, absolutely smooth. In hellebore they are wide. dense, streaked, slightly corrugated, corrugated, have villi on the back. The stem of wild garlic, emerging from the ground, has a pink-red hue, in hellebore it is white.
A bush of wild garlic contains about 4 leaves and an arrow with a flower, in which the seeds later ripen. The hellebore grows up to 1 m in height and forms a head of cabbage.
The main difference between plants is the garlic smell of wild garlic, which can be felt by breaking and rubbing its leaf.
Lily of the valley is a poisonous herb belonging to the Liliaceae. It is easy to confuse it with wild garlic, since they have the same place of growth and a similar appearance. The differences are as follows:
- lily of the valley leaves are lighter, have pointed ends;
- the flowers of the bear's onion are an umbrella, and the flowers of the lily of the valley are a bell;
- the main difference between wild garlic is the garlic smell.
Poisoning with poisonous plants manifests itself in the form of symptoms:
- burning tongue;
- vomiting;
- nausea;
- seizures;
- slowing down the pulse;
- feelings of fear.
To provide first aid, you need to call a doctor, and before his arrival, you should rinse your stomach, drink activated charcoal, and put ice on your head.
Where does wild garlic grow in Russia
Bear onion, wild garlic and bulb are one and the same plant. It has different names because it grows in many regions of Russia.
The bear onion is widespread in the Caucasus and the west of the Russian Federation. If the soil is not covered with turf, then forest garlic grows in clearings, in oak, ash, hornbeam forests.
In the North Caucasus, the bear onion covers an area of about 5,000 hectares. Often there are thickets of plants covering up to 10 hectares.
Siberian wild garlic, or flask, spread from Bashkiria and the Urals to Eastern Siberia. Places of its growth in these areas are light forests, edges, but often the plant is found in fir, cedar forests.
The Urals are rich in bear onion reserves, which are 3000 kg / ha. The least of all it is in coniferous forests, the largest amount grows in felling areas of ten years ago with abundant moisture.
On the plains of Western Siberia, the victory bow grows on gentle slopes, in cedar forests.
In the Altai and Sayan region, wild garlic is common on gentle slopes, meadows and woodlands.
The Northern Yenisei is a place where the phytomass reserves of the victorious onion are 50 kg / ha. The place of growth is fir forests and large-grass meadows.
The Far East is a place where the stock of the flask is 50 thousand tons, the workpiece is 700 tons.
When and where can wild garlic be harvested in 2019
All varieties of wild garlic are rich in vitamins A, E, C, group B. They contain many useful macro- and microelements necessary for humans. The plant is used in different forms - pickled, pickled, dried, salted.
The main harvesting time for wild garlic is May-June. The collection of wild garlic has recently become so massive that it has led to a reduction in the plant population. For this reason, in a number of regions of Russia (Leningrad, Bryansk, Smolensk and others) it was included in the Red Book. In the Moscow region and other regions of the Russian Federation, wild garlic is successfully grown on plots, being harvested since the end of spring.
In the Urals, the bear onion occupies space on the western slope of the ridge, in the area of Krasnoufimsk and Irbit. Collection time is May. In the Sverdlovsk region, a ban on harvesting has been imposed.
In the Caucasus and Chechnya, garlic is harvested in the foothill and mountainous regions, starting from February-March.
In Siberia - from the end of April.
Conclusion
Bear onion, or wild garlic, photo and description of which are given in the article, is a very useful plant, widespread throughout Russia. But as time has shown, in some territories of the Russian Federation, with immense harvesting, its area decreases and even tends to zero. For this reason, wild garlic was included in the Red Book. Planned harvesting, industrial cultivation and cultivation of crops in personal plots allow the plant to be preserved on the territory of the country.
