Alliaria petiolata, Vegetable
Alliaria petiolata is a flowering plant in genus Alliaria of the mustard family Brassicaceae, cultivated for its edible leaves, flowers and fruits. It is native to Europe, western and central Asia, and northwestern Africa. It is commonly known as Garlic mustard, Garlic Root, Hedge Garlic, Sauce-alone, Jack-in-the-bush, Penny Hedge and Poor Man's Mustard. Alliaria petiolata is an invasive, herbaceous, biennial plant, growing up to 1.3 m tall. The leaves are triangular to heart-shaped, 10-15 cm long and 5-9 cm wide, with a coarsely serrated margins. When crushed, the leaves and stems emit a distinctive garlic smell. The self-fertilize or cross-pollinated white flowers are produced in button-like clusters in spring and summer. They are small,four-petaled, 4-8 mm long and 2-3 mm wide, and are arranged in a cross shape. The fruit or silique, is a four-sided pod, 4-5.5 cm long, erect, slender, and contains numerous small black seeds, 2.5-3 mm long. The seed pods are green maturing to pale gray-brown, releasing the small shiny black seeds when the pods split open, scatterring a few meters from the parent plant. A single plant can yield hundreds of seeds. The edible young leaves, flowers and seeds have a mild garlic and mustard flavor, usually used in salads and pesto.  Alliaria petiolata Author: H. Zell (Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0-unported) | ||
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