I offered some of our new Garden Bloggers the opportunity to introduce themselves via a “Native Plant” guest post here on my blog. To date, only Telsing Andrews from Ottawa Hortiphilia has taken me up on the offer, but I’m so glad he has. Here, he features as our guest blogger with this great post – Kudos Telsing.
Wild food is all the rage in restaurants of late and one of the much sought after edibles is the wild leek, a.k.a. ramps, wild garlic or Allium tricoccum. It pops up with the other spring ephemerals such as trilliums and trout lily in eastern North American forests. Apparently, it is delicious with a taste somewhere between garlic and scallions, though I have never tried it.
It is also at risk*.
Like any number of wild plants, over enthusiastic collection has lead to a decline in numbers. While walking through Gatineau Park, and after passing numerous signs asking people to please not pick the wild leeks / d’ail des bois, I saw a women lean over and pull something from the ground. She turned to her companion and said, ‘Smell. It’s an onion. Very good.’ The companion did, but after taking a nibble, she tossed the remains back into the woods. I was shocked. Hadn’t they read the signs? Didn’t they care? But to some people, who’ve grown up with them, wild leeks are like wild raspberries, and you aren’t about to run out of those, are you?
According to the Canadian Biodiversity Project:
“Despite the legal restrictions on wild garlic harvesting, overharvesting continues to be the number one activity causing wild garlic populations to decline. Even moderate harvesting levels have a negative impact on wild garlic populations. Mathematical models show that the maximum harvest tolerance for wild garlic is five to fifteen percent of large populations. Under higher harvesting pressures, populations will rapidly decline and possible disappear (Couillard 1995). A thirty percent harvest rate will bring a population of a few thousand individuals to the brink of extirpation in as little as twenty-five years (Gagnon 1993 in Couillard 1995).”
In fact, its status under the Quebec Act is ‘vulnerable.’ This word conquers up images of fragility, needing protection. So if you happen upon a clearing bursting with wild leeks in spring, resist the temptation to think that taking a few will not hurt. If I had a wild leek for every time I heard a variation on that thought, then well… there would not be any left, would there?
* This is true of populations in Quebec and nearby Ontario. You may have healthy populations in your area. If you do, lucky you, let’s keep them that way.
I am fortunate to live on the edge of Peterborough Ontario where the wild leeks grow in abundance nearby the equally abundant fiddleheads. We harvest only a few of each for our own personal use in late April and early May (fiddleheads). I would appreciate any ideas on how to ensure that we are not damaging the leeks permanently.