Garlic Mustard, Alliaria officinalis, Naturalized Minnesota Wildflower plant, Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden, Invasive

	Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden
	Common Name	Scientific Name	Plant Family	Garden Location	Prime Season
	Garlic Mustard	Alliaria petiolata (M. Bieb.) Cavara & Grande	Mustard	Woodland and Upland	Spring to mid-summer, some first-year plants may produce a fall flower stem.
Other names and notes	Sometimes found in both the Woodland and Upland Gardens and in many areas of Wirth Park outside the Garden boundary. This plant is an officially designated invasive species. It is subject to continuous removal work in the Garden and the Garden surrounds. It flowers very early in spring and produces huge quantities of seeds which can lie dormant for years. It is biennial, flowering the second year. First year plants form a basal rosette. Second year plants have a mostly unbranched stem, the lower leaves are conspicuously heart or kidney shaped with very coarse teeth. The white 4-part flowers occur in a terminal cluster, of which there can be several if the upper stem branches. The leaves produce a garlic smell when crushed. The seed pods are long and thin, with 4 angles, and horizontal or upward pointing and contain a single row of oblong black seeds that will remain viable in the soil for 5+ years.


Plants can flower as early as late April and surpass in height anything else at that early date.	Above: Characteristic Mustard family seed pods already forming while some flowers are still in bloom.

Above: Typical Garlic Mustard plants, each stem an individual plant, they branch only near the top. Above right: Notice the height of the plants in early May in an area where volunteers are about to begin removal. Both photos by Melissa Hansen.

Notes: Removal work from the Garden by Garden staff and by volunteers has been very successful over the last 10 years. Plants appearing now within the Garden boundary are usually from long-dormant seeds in the soil or from seeds blown in from adjacent park areas where the plant is present in large numbers. Safe removal methods are by pulling the entire plant including the tap root or by cutting a ground level. Plants must be bagged as pulled plants left on the ground will produce seed. Cutting just the top usually results in a new flower cluster forming. On large infestations, glyphosate can be applied in early spring or late fall when native plants are dormant. If left untended, Garlic Mustard will within 10 years suppress most native herbaceous plants. It should be eradicated wherever found. It is listed on the "Prohibited noxious weeds" list in Minnesota.

Return to -- Site Plan/Archive --or-- List of Common Plant Names -- or -- List of Scientific Names -- or --Home Page

References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.

012211