False Garlic – Native Plant of the Day 03/31/2025
Photo from 03/30/2009. Location: Walker County, Ga.
More photos / info at the Nothoscordum bivalve detail page.
False Garlic, Crowpoison – Nothoscordum bivalve
Also NPOD 04/21/2011, 04/21/2012, 04/21/2013, 03/31/2014, 03/31/2015, 03/31/2016, 03/31/2017, 03/31/2018, 03/31/2019, 03/31/2020, 03/31/2021, 03/31/2022, 03/31/2023, 03/31/2024
I look forward to these bright, cheery little flowers every Spring. I actually saw one with 8 petals instead of 6 all the of 6 as the others. They grow abundantly in some empty lots and lawns. I thought they could be garlic but did not have the garlic or onion fragrance. I am glad you.
I did not get to finish my thought in the previous post. Thank you showing these. I think one has to let them go to seed before mowing them down so they will replenish next year.
Thanks, Mary. I usually try to leave a few in my yard until they complete blooming because we enjoy them. However, the USDA lists them as a perennial, so I think they’ll come back even if you don’t let them go to seed.
I have a “bouquet” of these that come up each spring out on the lawn. I live in Maryland and they are not suppose to be native to this area. I didn’t plant them; they come up naturally and have for more than a decade. I don’t mow that area until after they bloom. I always look forward to seeing these lovely blooms.
Interesting, Michael. What part of Maryland? While I haven’t found an “authoritative” site that lists it in Maryland, the range map at the online Flora of North America seems to show it as being in parts of that state.
My husband and I have had these wonderful flowers popping up in our yard for years, but we couldn’t identify it. Then today I found this web site and there they were! The strange thing is we live in southern New Hampshire!
Thank for the visit, and for the report that you have them in New Hampshire!
gcw
These are grow in my yard in Hattiesburg, MS. I have recently moved here so I am enjoying identifying the tiny wildflowers. These are so lovely!
I live in Somerset,Ky. my daughter was moving out of a house an the grass has already beginning to get tall . I seen this little bouquet of flowers growing along the edge of the sidewalk. I dug them up , I plan on replanting in my flower bed. I had no clue as to what they were til now. Any ideals of how they live an/or rebloom after resetting them ?
Unfortunately I’m not a gardener, so I can’t help you much except to say that these seem to be pretty hardy. Some even consider them to be weedy.
I’ve had these show up accidentally in our back yard in northern Indiana beneath a robin’s nest 3 years ago. I didn’t know what they were but I left them alone. they came back again in the same spot. Thanks for the information!
These are growing along the roadside in the suburbs outside of Boston: Brookline, Newton. They are way further North than their habitat listing, or perhaps this is a sign of the global warming ???
Possibly – or could it be Star of Bethlehem – Ornithogalum umbellatum, which has a similar flower and is found in Massaschusetts?
In north Texas I went to photograph them but ended up having to wait until the afternoon when the blossoms opened up.
How are these endangered in Ohio? they are taking over my yard and the small risome is hard to weed out!
I can’t speak specifically to the classification rationale – it is reported to be present in only one or two counties in Ohio. The 2020-2021 Ohio Department of Natural Resources “Rare Plants List” continues to list it as “Threatened.”