Ramp

Description

Allium tricoccum (commonly known as ramp, ramps, ramson, wild leek, wood leek, or wild garlic) is a North American species of wild onion widespread across eastern Canada and the eastern United States. Many of the common English names for this plant are also used for other Allium species, particularly the similar Allium ursinum, which is native to Europe and Asia. Allium tricoccum is a perennial growing from an ovoid-conical shaped bulb that is 2–6 cm long. Plants typically produce a cluster of 2–6 bulbs that give rise to broad, flat, smooth, light green leaves, that are 20–30 cm long including the narrow petioles, often with deep purple or burgundy tints on the lower stems. The bulbs are white and surrounded by brownish to grayish sheathing. Each cluster of bulbs gives rise to one flowering stem. The flowers are arranged into an umbel that has an erect scape that is typically 10–40 cm long. The inflorescence has two ovate bracts that enclose the flowers before they open and fall away at anthesis. The flowering stem is persistent after fruiting. The flowering most commonly occurs after the leaves have died back, unlike the similar Allium ursinum, in which leaves and flowers can be seen at the same time. Ramps grow in close groups strongly rooted just beneath the surface of the soil. Flowering occurs in June or July into August. The flowers have white, cream or yellowish tepals which are 4–7mm long. The stamens are about as tall as the tepals and the filaments of the stamens have widened bases and are inserted on the corolla. After flowering and fertilization green fruits are produced that are three-lobed and open by way of three valves. The seeds are round, black, and shiny. Allium tricoccum was first named as such in 1789 by the Scottish botanist William Aiton, in Hortus Kewensis, a catalog of plants cultivated in London's Kew botanic garden. The species had been introduced to Britain in 1770. The specific epithet tricoccum refers to the possession of three seeds Allium is a genus of monocotyledonous flowering plants that includes hundreds of species, including the cultivated onion, garlic, scallion, shallot, leek, and chives. The generic name Allium is the Latin word for garlic, and the type species for the genus is Allium sativum which means "cultivated garlic". Carl Linnaeus first described the genus Allium in 1753. Some sources refer to Greek ἀλέω (aleo, to avoid) by reason of the smell of garlic.