PlantFiles: Garlic Mustard, Hedge Garlic, Jack by the Hedge
Alliaria petiolata

WARNING
Before I begin the description I would like to say that this particular plant will, without question, escape into the wild. It is native to Europe ONLY, anywhere else it is an introduced, invasive, undesirable weed which displaces native flora and rapidly takes over a large area. It is also difficult and expensive to erradicate.

If you are considering growing this plant outside of Europe, I would respectfully suggest further reading.


It has heart shaped, toothed, mid green, deeply veined leaves with a distinct garlic smell when crushed. It bears tiny, white, 4 petalled flowers borne in a ring on the end of the stems. It is a biennial which only flowers in its 2nd year.

Flowers April - July

Will run rampant on well drained alkaline soils in sun or shade.

The leaves are edible in salads, sauces and with salted meat as it has a very mild garlic taste.

Once used as a medicinal herb; externally it was used as in an antiseptic to treat skin ulcers and gangrene. The juice was also boiled up with honey and used to treat dropsy.

This is an evil evil plant...... if you want mustard flavor plant mustard or arugula..... garlic chives and of course garlic also work..... spreads through runners and seeds....... mostly seeds...... can eradicate by pulling before plants flower or at least set their seeds in spring.... this is a noxious weed in many places..... banned in many places...... do not grow..... it chokes out our native forests and meadows...... not worth the trouble.......

Three years ago there were only a few plants on our one-acre garden area. I should have erridicated it then, for it has now taken over. It overran and killed our large bloodroot patch, and has threatened other areas as well.
We are attempting to pull every plant we can before it goes to seed this year, and cut down every plant we cannot pull. We understand that the seed is viable for up to 7 years, and that erridication will be a long-term undertaking.

Evil plant.

In my area of chester county, PA, it runs rampant in fields and along roads and spreads into the woods.

When I bought this property, it was covered by them. Fairly serious weeding before seed sets (preferably during bloom, when they're easy to pick out) does make a big dent in a year, and a massive dent in two. But it will be a bunch of years before I have it under control in the area around the house. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to fully control it in the woods nearby, but I believe it can be controlled to a large degree with work every spring.

Note: it forms deep taproots in the summer/fall, and the next year it comes up in big clumps. If you can make a pass weeding in the fall you might cut into that. Also, in this area the fall clumps are semi-evergreen through the winter. Note that in loose soil it's very easily pulled even with a taproot; this year's seedlings are trivial.

Horribly invasive. Nasty plant. Creates a seedbank that goes on giving for years to come. Very easy to pull out by hand so requires no chemicals what so ever to eradicate. You can easily get about 90% the first year in a very short period of time and in year two you get the rest. This is a non-native biennial so the next few years you will need to look for the newly emerging rosettes.

Burn or bag and toss in your garbage as the tiny black seeds will come back to get you if you add this to your composter.

A very, very bad plant. It'll escape from you and form mass colonies wherever they can. I had the misfortune of moving onto a property that was already established with them.

The only good thing about this plant is that it pulls up easily, but the tiny seed spread like crazy and even worse, the plant attracts ants like a magnet.

It crowds out native plants and everything else and therefor I would highly encourage killing any plants on site.

4/11/08: I've remained stringent with mowing them before they flower so they don't set seed. I get the rest with a weed whacker, where I can't mow. It has done WONDERS. You have to keep it up for the next few years to completely knock it out. Unless... You have neighbors who let it thrive and you'll probably end up with them again.

This is one of the most invasive plants in Wisconsin. I am pretty sure it is illegal to plant it. The field behind my house is over run with it and it keeps spring up in my yard. An awful invasive plant.

This plant is listed on the North Dakota invasive/troublesome list and this information is being distributed in a guide developed by the ND Weed Control Association and other agencies.

Plant Features
Biennial, up to 3 feet tall
First year leaves kidney shaped, plants short
Second year, blooms early spring
White flowers with 4 petals
Leaves heart-shaped to triangular-shaped
Leaf edges irregular
Garlic odor when crushed
White slender taproot, S-shaped at the top
May form large patches
Long thin seed capsules, slightly bent at base

Distribution
Documented in a few areas. Very aggressive, shade tolerant, grows (understory) in wooded areas.

Interesting Facts
Escaped garden plant
Very invasive, releases toxins that inhibits other plant growth (allelopathic)
Ballistic seed dispersal, seed capsules erupt dispersing tiny black seeds over 10 feet

It's extremely invasive here too. Though it pulls up easily... it's just everywhere.

I have found that spraying in the spring (with round-up or weed killer) it helps keep it at bay.

This is an exotic and VERY invasive plant. Never saw it around here until maybe three years ago - last year it was widespread in woods and gardens. Have been pulling it agressively from gardens but with acres of woods it is impossible to eradicate it. Plus it is quite irritating to the skin. Shade, sun, it does not care. It spreads everywhere! Horrible! Yet another lesson of why we should not introduce exotics.

This is one of the worst plants I have ever come across. I would prefer to call it Hitler-Weed, because it invades anywhere and everywhere it can. When it first starts to grow in an area, it only takes a few years to explode in numbers until a sea of white can be seen everywhere. Around here, it seems to grow everywhere and it is quickly wiping out many of the native species of plants.

I will list its uses as an edible wild plant, but I refuse to ever recommend it for planting in the home garden.

"The Encyclopedia of Edible Plants of North America: Nature's Green Feast" by Francois Couplan, Ph.D. says...

"The leaves have a very definite smell and taste of garlic. They are slightly bitter, with a sweetish aftertaste and make an excellent addition to salads. With cooking, they lose their aroma while retaining mostly their bitterness and are therefore better raw.

The plant was formerly much eaten to Europe. It contains a glucoside (sinigrin) and essential oils. Hedge garlic is diuretic, vulnerary and antiputrefactive. The seeds can be used as a spice, but they are bitter as well as pungent."

"Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide" by Elias & Dykeman says...

"Harvest: Young leaves, blossoms, and seed pods in spring and early summer.

Preparation: Chop tender growth raw in salad; for cooked vegetable steam or boil in little water, season with salt and butter. Use for garlic flavor with meats and vegetables."

"Edible Wild Plants of Eastern North America" by Fernald & Kinsey says...

"The old-fashioned garden plant, Garlic-Mustard, a tall biennial with heart-shaped or somewhat triangular stem-leaves smelling like garlic, and with white flowers with 4 petals, borne in a simple terminal cluster, has spread somewhat to roadsides and borders of groves. It is available for those who like the combination.

Evelyn, hiding the identity under the old English names, Jack-By-The-Hedge and Sauce-Alone, said, "eaten, as other Sallets, by all Lovers of Garlick"; and Bryant, nearly a century later, said: "The poor people in the country [England] eat the leaves of this plant with their bread, and on account of the relish they give, call them sauce-alone. They also mix them with Lettuce, use them as a stuffing herb to pork, and eat them with salt-fish."

Perhaps if we get enough people to eat it, we can start to eradicate it.

Listed as invasive on Minnesota DNR website
"Ecological Threat:
Garlic mustard spreads into high quality woodlands upland and floodplain forests, not just into disturbed areas.
Invaded sites undergo a decline on native herbaceous cover within 10 years.
Garlic mustard alters habitat suitability for native insects and thereby birds and mammals.
This European exotic occurs now in 27 midwestern and northeastern states and in Canada.
Garlic mustard is on the MDA Prohibited noxious weeds list in Minnesota"

Have appear in small numbers in my yard even thought there were no plants for thousands of feet. Very ugly with dried seedheads through late summer to fall, making woodland area look more weedy than it used to be.

This plant crowds out wildflowers, there is no good aspect to this plant whatsoever. It is a weed by every definition.

In upstate NY this plant is invading everywhere rapidly. I pull huge amounts every spring and it is beginning to make some impact. Christmas and other ferns are coming back strongly where I have greatly reduced the garlic mustard but it is very tough to get rid of on 4 acres. Hand pulling seems to cause less seed dispersal then tools or machinery but it is harder work. Cornell is researching bio control methods of this unrelenting invasive ( invasive plants.net ) is their page for Cornell cooperative extension invasive sight.