page_title: Allium ursinum
section_title: Similarity to poisonous plants
hierarchical_section_title: Allium ursinum / Edibility / Similarity to poisonous plants
caption_attribution_description: Wild garlic (Allium ursinum) growing in spring, in woodland at Combe Dingle, Bristol, England.
context_page_description: Allium ursinum, known as wild garlic, ramsons, buckrams, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek or bear's garlic, is a bulbous perennial flowering plant in the amaryllis family Amaryllidaceae. It is a wild relative of onion, native to Europe and Asia, where it grows in moist woodland.
context_section_description: Plants that may be mistaken for A. ursinum include lily of the valley, Colchicum autumnale, Arum maculatum, and Veratrum viride or Veratrum album, all of which are poisonous. In Europe, where ramsons are popularly harvested from the wild, people are regularly poisoned after mistakenly picking lily of the valley or Colchicum autumnale.
  Grinding the leaves between the fingers and checking for a garlic-like smell can be helpful, but if the smell remains on the hands, one can mistake a subsequent poisonous plant for bear garlic. When the leaves of A. ursinum and Arum maculatum first sprout, they look similar, but unfolded Arum maculatum leaves have irregular edges and many deep veins, while ramsons leaves are convex with a single main vein. The leaves of lily of the valley are paired, dull green and come from a single reddish-purple stem, while the leaves of A. ursinum emerge individually and are bright green.
caption: Allium ursinum in an English woodland
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