This plant often appears as a reddish head of bulbils with few or no flowers to be seen. In addition the leaves have sometimes withered or somehow disappeared by the time the flowering head becomes visible so this is the only bit of the plant you can identify. In theory it is possibly to confuse it with the very rare Allium sphaerocephalon (Round-headed Leek or Bristol Onions) but unless you are botanising in the Avon Gorge area, the only place where A. sphaerocephalon grows, then forget it. Often the plant will be in a cluster in the middle of grassland species poking its reddish heads above the rest of the vegetation.

Stace reckons this plant is usually called Wild Onion but up 'ere in't frozen north we call it Crow Garlic. Crow Garlic is very common in the south of England but records get fewer and fewer as you go north and it is rarely recorded in the north of Scotland. It is found commonly in Wales and southern Ireland less frequently in Northern ireland.

Red Rocks Dunes, Wirral 28th June 2005

Added on 10th October 2005, updated 22nd June 2008, updated 25th Feb 2010, updated 7th August 2018