Found throughout the eastern and central United States. All leaves have a garlic-like or onion scent. Flowering stems are the only stems that occur. These are slender, solid, waxy, unbranched, and 1-3 feet tall. Produced at the top of the flowering stems.
Flowers are greenish-white, small, and on short stems above the globe of aerial bulblets.
Aerial bulblets are ovoid, often wholly or partially replace the flowers, and are usually tipped by a long, fragile slender green leaf. Round to egg-shaped bulbs with a papery outer covering. Smaller bulblets may form at the base of the bulbs, and fibrous roots are also attached at the bases of the bulbs. The leaves of wild garlic are hollow and round, while those of wild onion are more flat and 'solid'.