Wild garlic
A spring plant carpeting moist deciduous woods; its white star flowers give bees nectar and pollen as the trees come into leaf.
- Nectar
- Medium
- Pollen
- Medium
- Flowering
- JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
- Height
- 0,2-0,5 m
- Life cycle
- Perennial
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Wild garlic forms dense carpets in shady, damp beech, hornbeam and ash woods. Its white, star-shaped flowers give nectar and pollen; large stands can be a short but intense spring source for apiaries at the woodland edge. Bees visit especially in the warm, sunny hours around midday.
Flowering
It flowers for 3-4 weeks in April and May, before the tree canopy closes. In Turkey it grows in the damp forests of Thrace and the Black Sea region.
Honey and pollen
No single-flower honey is produced; it contributes to spring forest honeys. No reliable record of the pollen load colour was found.
Note for the beekeeper
When the leaves are picked, the plant should stay rooted and keep growing; over-picking has reduced stands in some regions. The leaves can be confused with those of poisonous lily of the valley and autumn crocus, so care is needed when picking.