Allium canadense, also known as Canada onion, Canadian garlic, wild garlic, meadow garlic and wild onion is a perennial plant native to eastern North America from Texas to Florida to New Brunswick to Montana. The species is also cultivated in other regions as an ornamental and as a garden culinary herb. The plant is also reportedly naturalized in Cuba.
Allium canadense has an edible bulb covered with a dense skin of brown fibers and tastes like an onion. The plant also has strong, onion-like, odor. Crow garlic (Allium vineale) is similar, but it has a strong garlic taste.
The narrow, grass-like leaves originate near the base of the stem, which is topped by a dome-like cluster of star-shaped, pink or white flowers. These flowers may be partially or entirely replaced by bulblets. It typically flowers in the spring and early summer, from May to June.
The Canada onion is cultivated as a vegetable in home gardens in Cuba, scattered locally in the south to western parts of the island. It was formerly collected from the wild to be eaten by Native Americans and by European settlers. People in the Western Cherokee Nation continue the tradition of picking and cooking wild onions in early spring.
It was once thought that the walking onion ("tree onion") could be related to this plant, but it is now known that the cultivated walking onion is a hybrid between the common onion (A. cepa) and Welsh onion (A. fistulosum), classified as A. × proliferum.
The plant prefers boggy soil, so set the pot in a tray with an inch of water, or in a sunny wet area of your yard. The plant seems to die back in spring, with no sign of life all summer, then once the cooler fall arrives the shoots appear. The bulb itself also multiplies underground, so in a few months you will have a clump that can be divided.
References:
Allium canadense - Wikipedia https://buff.ly/2MUA0mC
Tree onion - Wikipedia https://buff.ly/2KFOmKL
Edible Native Garlic Plants for Sale https://buff.ly/2ufbBAv
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