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Onion family (Alliaceae)
Perennial. The bulb underground produces 2 elliptical-ovate but sharp-pointed and long-stalked leaves about 25 cm long. Leaves smell of garlic and are shiny when new. Flower stem leafless, triangular in cross-section and up to 50 cm long, ending in a loose umbel. Flowers white, up to 2 cm in diameter. Fruit a sac with three spherical chambers. Above-ground parts wither away after fruits mature. Flowers in Apr.-Jun.
Grows on moist, fertile soils, most often in low oak-lime-hornbeam forest. The young leaves and bulbs of this medicinal herb are edible, but the species enjoys partial protection.
Descriptions devised by the team at the Independent Department of Forest Botany, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, i.e. L. Witkowska-Żuk, K. Marciszewska, W. Ciurzycki, A. Obidziński and P. Zaniewski
