Onion Weed

Onion Weed (Allium triquetrum)

Onion Weed aka 3 cornered leek, 3 cornered garlic, angled onion, triangle onion.

The Allium family includes onion, garlic, scallion, shallot, leek, and chives. Triquetrum means 3. Onion Weed is a delicious herb that is abundant during the wet & cold season.

Onion Weed makes an excellent spring onion or chive replacement, with a very strong garlic/onion type flavor.

The whole plant can be eaten, leaves, bulbs & flowers, and it's most excellent raw. Slice the entire stalk fresh into salads, sprinkle into omelettes or pestos. Dig up, wash & pickle the bulbs just like pickled onions.

 Given it's sulphur content Onion Weed is believed to have similar medicinal properties to Garlic & Onions which includes protection against cancer, reducing cholesterol levels & antibiotic effects.

Onion weed loves to grow in damp shady places, so you may find it at the end of your abandoned garden, or beside creeks & streams. Once it gets going the bulbs multiply and spread pretty quickly, yielding a year after year supply of fresh greens.

The leafless stalks, look a bit like grass stalks. Slice these in half to find a distinctive triangle shape (which gives this plant all it’s common names). The flowers form in small clusters of adorable little white bells which hang off the tips of the stalks. Each bell shaped white flower has 5 petals with a light green streak running down the middle of each petal. Onion Weed has a very strong Onion odour when touched, rubbed or sliced, this is a key ID tip.

A common lookalike is ‘Snowdrops’ which is toxic, however Snowdrop has no onion smell whatsoever.

Onionweed features in my Winter Foraging Guide, which can be downloaded under 'Foraging Guides'. Lots more detailed information, photos, comprehensive ID, nutritional + medicinal properties, how to prepare, recipes, folklore & history.