Rolandvue 2nd Week Nov: Wild Onions or Field Garlic

This familiar green grass-like clump is not a great calendar marker, it will be with us for the rest of the winter, but becomes most visible here in the early weeks of November.  It has been hiding underground during the heat of the summer and appears as the tree leaves fall and more sunlight reaches the ground.

I have always called this wild onion, remembering the smell from childhood.  But wild garlic is more common with a slightly different smell and hollow stems.  The latin can be helpful wild onion: Allium vineale, wild garlic: Allium canadense.  All parts of both plants are edible so making the distinction is a matter of taste.

The taste and smell is important to rule out a toxic relative, the star off Bethlehem.  Also in the lily family it has dangerous glycosides.  The leaves are flat and there is no onion or garlic smell.  The star of Bethlehem has been seen in some of the parks and probably is in the neighborhood but will be easier to spot when it flowers in the spring.

If the ground is wet the bulbs can be pulled up in a clump but this group was collected with a trowel.  Generally just pulling will get only the greens which can be eaten like chives. The bulbs can be cleaned and used as seasoning, or put through a garlic press.  This may keep away scurvy but a hard way to get calories.

clump of wild garlic, greens,bulbs and roots

hollow stems of wild garlic

close up of the bulbs,still brown outer layer

Rolandvue,1st Week November:Fall Colors,Anthrocyanins

It is hard to put a date on the changing leaf colors, it does seem more obvious this week and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources agrees that this is the peak for the upper Chesapeake Bay area. It seems maybe a little early with a lot of green and little change in the red burning bush.

Every fall we hear the story about the leaf chemistry.  During spring and summer the chlorophyll absorbs light in the high energy blue end of the spectrum as well as some light in the longer wavelength red spectrum while reflecting the middle mostly green light.  As the days get shorter and the temperature cooler the chlorophyll is recycled, leaving the remaining colorful chemicals dominant, reflecting light in the yellow orange and red.  The carotinoids produce the brighter yellows, the anthrocyanins darker reds.

Red oak off of Rolandvue

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These are the same class of chemicals as some of the vitamins your mother told you about.  They can protect the leaves from oxidation,infection and from sun damage,  just as vitamins can protect your cells.  There is not much literature about getting the nutrients directly from the changing tree leaves.  There are tea formulas, which would extract some of the beneficial chemicals.  The green Linden leaves are suggested as a lettuce substitute and seem well-tolerated.  The colorful vitamins are there but hidden by the chlorophyll. The problem in the fall with concentrated anthrocyanins may be the bitterness.  Many of the "good for you " chemicals are bitter and would be concentrated in the red leaves.

There is also the longstanding chemical warfare between plants and animals.  The plants produce toxins like oxalates and tannins to ward off snackers.  The solid cellulose cell wall also makes absorption of the internal chemicals difficult. Maybe a really fine blending with a Vitamix would release the nutrients.

There is a suggestion that global warming will affect the fall colors, with perhaps dryer weather making the palette more drab.  This will be hard to quantitate with color being so subjective. Compare these photos next November.  The vine is Virginia creeper to be mentioned again next week.  If you see these colors you are somewhere near the first week in November.