Bear's Garlic

Allium ursinum Origin: Netherlands Improvement status: Wild Seeds per packet: ~60 BOTANICAL SAMPLE - NOT GERMINATION TESTED Life cycle: Perennial Also known as ramsons, cowleek, wood garlic, buckrams, herba salutaris, and bear leek, among other names, is essentially the Eurasian equivalent of North America's ramps. Both are slow-growing, broad-leaved, shade-dwelling wild leeks with narrow elongate bulbs. But bear's garlic is most certainly distinct and has its own unique charms. This is not a plant grown as an ornamental, but does have showier blossoms than its North American cousin. Many of its names come from the clear preference of many animals for this plant. Brown bears seek it out, often consuming it immediately after coming out of hibernation. Cows have been known to eat so much of it that it makes their milk taste of garlic!Bear's garlic has also been consumed by humans for thousands of years. Archaeologists once found an impression of a leaf in a Mesolithic settlement site at