Three-cornered leek
Allium triquetrum
A slender spring allium with a sharply three-angled flowering stem and narrow, keeled leaves that smell strongly of garlic when crushed. The nodding umbels carry white bells, each tepal marked with a fine green line down the middle. Leaves, flowers, seed capsules and bulbs are all eaten, with a softer, more chive-like flavour than wild garlic.
A Mediterranean introduction, well naturalised on shaded hedge banks, woodland edges, churchyards, lane sides and damp verges, spreading by bulb offsets into dense carpets. Commonest in south-west England, Wales, southern Ireland and coastal areas.
Eaten raw or cooked, though a large raw helping can unsettle some stomachs, as with other alliums. Emerging leaves come up among bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta), whose flat, glossy, unkeeled leaves carry no garlic smell when crushed, and snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis), whose paired grey-green leaves rise from a papery sheath and are likewise scentless, so crush every leaf before it goes in the bag. The species is listed on Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, so it must not be planted or otherwise spread, and lifting bulbs needs the landowner's permission.
Always use more than one reference to confirm a plant. You are responsible for what you choose to forage.
Flowering stem
Roll the stem between finger and thumb and it has three flat faces and three sharp edges, triangular in cross-section. Bluebell and snowdrop stems are round and give nothing to feel.
Flowers
Three to fifteen white bells hanging from the top of the stem, each tepal with a narrow green line running down it. The bells droop rather than facing upwards or outwards.
Leaves
Two or three per bulb, narrow, strap-like and folded into a shallow V or keel along the midrib, appearing from midwinter well before most woodland growth.
Crush test
A crushed leaf gives an immediate garlic and onion smell. No smell at all means it is not an allium and should be dropped, whatever the leaf shape suggested.
Growth habit
Forms dense continuous carpets on shaded banks from spreading bulb offsets, rather than scattered single plants.
Updated 2026-08-07T20:57:57.957Z · Part of the shared Foragers Log catalogue · Herb