garlic, Allium sativum

Garlic is strong stuff. You probably guess I don't just mean that indispensable flavor. Garlic, given half a chance, is liable to seize a spot on your lot and hang on. There's a wonderful long stretch of it along a road just south of here. Every summer you can see all those white heads standing out above the other herbs. We're used to seeing garlic without flowers, but if you get out of the produce section and into the wild you just might see some with flowers like this or even much showier purple ones. Over the centuries garlic has been used as medicine for almost everything that ails us, and some imaginary stuff too. Vampires? Garlic has been reported wild from AL, AR, CA, CO, GA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, MI, MO, MS, NE, NY, OH, OK, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WI, WV, MB, and ON. Lenawee Co MI, 7/2/17. Onion family, Alliaceae.