Wild garlic – also known as ramsons, buckrams, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek or bear’s garlic – is a monocotyledonous bulb-forming perennial native to Europe and Northern Asia. Its Latin name ‘ursinum’ refers to bears. According to legend, ramsons is the first plant bears eat when they emerge from hibernation.
Allium ursinum is related to garlic (A. sativum) and chives (A. schoenoprasum). Wild garlic has broad leaves up to 4 cm wide and 30 cm long. Its white flowers carpet the forest floor in spring.