Onion I.D. help

[GardenRN]

I don't know about other areas of the country, but here in Va these onions grow wild all over the place. Everyone has a few bunches in their yards all summer. I pulled up a few bunches and separated out the largest onions and planted them in the garden. The greens are short on the bunch in the pics because they broke off when I went to pull them out. There's usually about 50-100 in a bunch and they're pretty small, but tasty!

Does anyone know what kind of onions they are?

[DoubleDogFarm]

Jeff,

Not sure, but they seem to grow like chives.


Eric

[TWC015]

These are probably Allium canadense. I have these coming up in the garden now.

These are definitely weeds around here. I remove them when they start coming up. Patches of these grow in ditches and yards in the spring and die down in June.

[TZ -OH6]

They might be wild garlic, which has round chive-like leaves. I really don't consider the flavor to be garlic-like though


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allium_vineale

The tops have bulbils which is why you get those clumps. If you separate out the individual plants they will get quite a bit larger. I transplanted some from the woods to my herb garden two years ago but pulled them later because they have more odor than taste (if used like chives), and they leave a residual taste in your mouth (when you eat the small bulbs).

I have a section of back yard that has scattered plants and smell up the place in spring when mown.

Wild onions have grass-like leaves

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allium_canadense

[GardenRN]

The leaves are more grass like. And I don't think they taste garlic-ish at all. But they smell nice when hit with the mower, and when eaten, they're mild. I don't know if they have an after-taste per se. But I separated about 8 of the biggest ones from a different bunch and planted them. We'll see what they do. If they get big I'll use 'em in the kitchen and report on flavor. If not, in the compost bin we go!