NOTHOSCORDUM GRACILE

Familly:- ALLIACEAE

Common Name:- False garlic

Synonyms:- Allium gracile, Maligia gracilis, Milla macrostemon var. gracilis.

Meaning:- Nothoscordum (L) The ancient Latin name for garlic.

Gracile (L) Slender, graceful.

General description:- Bulbous, scapose perennial herbs, not smelling of onion or

garlic

Bulbs:-

1) Composed of several scales, tunicate.

Leaves:-

1) Basal, linear, with sheathing bases.

Flowers:-

1) In a terminal umbel at first enclosed within a spathe of 2 bracts connate at the

base.

2) Perianth-segments connate at the base into a short tube, 1-veined.

3) Stamens adnate to lower part of perianth.

4) Anthers dorsifixed, introrse.

5) Ovary superior, 3-locular; ovules 4-12 in each loculus.

6) Style terminal; stigma entire.

Fruits:-

1) Capsule membranous.

2) Seeds angled, black.

Key features:-

1) Does not smell of onion or garlic.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Cultivated and fallow fields, occasionally in cliffs or semi-natural rocky

habitats.

Distribution:- A native of warm-temperate South America, has become a noxious

weed in California and is locally naturalized as a garden escapee in SW Europe. It

has recently been reported also from some localities in Greece.

A previous report by Yannitsaro (in Greuter & Raus 2009: 343) from the city of

Chania in W Crete. Other Greek records are from W Peloponnisos, the Nafpaktos

area and Kerkira.1).

A sighting by Christopher Cheiladakis, three years ago in Alikampos, Chania

growing in a field remained unreported. This year 2023 he found it again in another

locality in Kakopetros village. "growing wild"

1) "Atlas of the Aegean Flora" Book1, Arne Strid 2016

Flowering time:- April-July

Photos by:- Courtesy Wiki-commons