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Garlic Mustard

Garlic Mustard

Alliaria petiolata

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How common: Very common

Garlic Mustard is a two-year herb with small white flowers and a mild garlic smell when crushed. It is often seen along paths and roadsides, in parks, gardens, and light woodland. In its first year it stays as a low circle of leaves; in the second year it sends up a flowering stem.

Did you know?

  • Crushing the leaves releases a garlic scent, which gave the plant its English name.
  • Outside Europe, especially in North America, it can be a troublesome invasive plant.

About the species

Identification

A two-year herb, 30–100 cm tall. Upright stem, usually unbranched. First year a low circle of leaves; second year it sends up the flowering stem. Base leaves are round to kidney-shaped with shallow lobes and scalloped edges, shiny above and softly hairy beneath; higher leaves are triangular to heart-shaped with toothed edges. Small white flowers with four petals crowd at the top. Later, long, thin, four-edged pods 3–6 cm develop. Crush a leaf for a mild garlic smell. Not a nettle; unlike white dead-nettle, its flowers are small and cross-shaped. Flowers in May–June in Finland.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

herb-rich forest

Flowering

May–Jun

About the habitat

Grows in nutrient-rich, shaded to semi-shaded places such as deciduous woods, hedges, old parks, gardens, thickets, and along roadsides and other disturbed ground. Native and regular along the south coast and in southern Häme; occasional farther north.

Sources

Photo: Gzen92, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alliaire officinale (Alliaria petiolata) (2 dioptries).jpg

Text: Pinkka: A Pohjolan kasveja - Carex, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38364

Text: Pinkka: A Pohjolan kasveja - Abies-Allium, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38364

Text: Pinkka (Luomus), CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38364

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litulaukka

See also