What is this plant in this overgrown community garden plot?

April 21, 2017 5:06 PM

Spouse and I just got assigned a previously-neglected plot in an established community garden. We could identify almost everything growing in it except this thing at the front. I think it's some kind of allium gone to seed, maybe, or a weird lily, but I really have no idea. So...what is this, should I keep it, and can I eat it?
posted by lemonadeheretic to Home & Garden (13 answers total)

definitely allium, past that, not sure what you should do with it.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 5:08 PM on April 21, 2017

Looks leekish to me
posted by sciencegeek at 5:20 PM on April 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

Garlic! (Pending confirmation.) But if it is--cut off the top when it makes a full curl and cook the scapes. Dig up the bulb and enjoy!
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:20 PM on April 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

Totally an allium. The little seed pods inside the flower bulb can be really tasty, and so can the blooms. If it's an onion, the bulb at the root of it is likely tough by now. If it's garlic, it might be usable. I'd wait for it to flower, though, and then put those little petals on a salad.
posted by mudpuppie at 5:22 PM on April 21, 2017 [2 favorites]

Those look remarkably like leeks to me.
posted by cooker girl at 5:36 PM on April 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

It's garlic.
posted by Redstart at 5:44 PM on April 21, 2017

The fact that the stems appear to grow in a single plane, paired and kind of one on top of the other definitely says leeks to me. Garlic tends to be a little more chaotic.
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 5:51 PM on April 21, 2017

Garlic photo for comparison.
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:59 PM on April 21, 2017

Leeks

Leek scapes

Garlic plants

Garlic scapes

So basically, garlic plants are smaller and shorter than leek plants, and the garlic scapes get all twisty while leek scapes generally don't. Really, the only way to definitively find out what these are is to pull 'em up and see what you've got. It'll be evident right away if you've got garlic or leeks, or some other allium. And, you know, you can totally send me the scapes if you don't want them. I'll be happy to take them off your hands. I mean, it's not like they're super delicious or anything....
posted by cooker girl at 6:15 PM on April 21, 2017 [2 favorites]

Whatever kind of allium it is you can sample the buds, flowers, leaves and root. If you go in that order you can try them all!

The way I see it it's just as likely (if not more!) to be some sort of weird hybrid/feral/unnamed intermediate type than a simple leek like you get at the grocer, but that doesn't change anything really ;)
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:28 PM on April 21, 2017

I'd be surprised if it was a leek just because leeks are a pain in the ass to grow (or at least grow and get something that looks like a leek from the store--to get it so that the stalk is mostly white and tender, you have to hill it). Garlic is much more common in kitchen gardens.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:42 PM on April 21, 2017

I bet it's elephant garlic.
posted by KathrynT at 11:29 AM on April 23, 2017

It looks like when I left my leeks for too long. Whatever you do don't try making a soup with the woody stems of the flowers. They don't puree well and you end up with a soup consisting of tender splinters of leek stems. It was such a mess that I wasn't even able to filter them out with a sieve and have soup anyways, but I did try.
posted by koolkat at 6:12 AM on April 24, 2017 [1 favorite]