Floridata: Allium tuberosum

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#632 Allium tuberosum
Common Names: garlic chives, Chinese leeks, Chinese chives, flat chives
Family: Amaryllidaceae (amaryllis Family)

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A tiger swallowtail butterfly enjoys a dinner of garlic chive nectar.
You can download a JPG photo (800x600) of our tiger and chives to use as wallpaper on your computer desktop.

Description
Garlic chives is an allium grown for its leaves, and not its little bulb. The tough, fibrous bulb is elongate and originates from a stout rhizome (underground stem). The gray-green leaves are flat and grasslike, to 15 in (38 cm) long, and about 0.3 in (0.8 cm) wide. The plant grows in a clump and the leaves bend down under their own weight. The showy inflorescence stands above the leaf clump on 1-2 ft (0.3-0.6 m) stalks and consists of a rounded umbel, 2 in (5 cm) across, with many small creamy white, star-shaped, fragrant flowers. Each perianth segment (petal and sepal) has a brown stripe. The unique flavor of garlic chives is both sweet and garlicky. Several cultivars are available in Asia, including some grown for the flower stalks, which are also eaten.

Location
Originally from SE Asia, garlic chives has become an invasive weed in some parts of Europe and North America.

Culture
Garlic chives is a fast growing and fast spreading perennial that needs to be divided every 3-4 years. Maintain it as a permanent crop, and harvest individual leaves as needed.
Light: Full sun to light shade.
Moisture: Garlic chives can tolerate drought, and thrives with normal garden watering.
Hardiness: USDA Zones 4 - 8.
Propagation: Propagate by seed or by dividing the clumps.

Jack's garlic chive's put forth flowers in late summer to form a banquet border of blossoms for visiting butterflies and bees.

Usage
Garlic chives spreads by rhizomes and by self-seeding, and makes an excellent ground cover or edging plant. Garlic chives is equally at home in the herb garden, the vegetable garden, a flower bed, or as an edging along a mixed border or along a path. It takes the heat better than true chives (Allium schoenoprasum), and doesn't die back in summer. Whether grown as an ornamental or for food, garlic chives usually is treated as a semi-permanent crop, and left in place for several years.

Steve grows his garlic chives in the vegetable garden where they can be conveniently plucked for positioning atop baked pototoes.

The flavor, at once sweet and garlic-like, is useful in salads, stir fries and soups. It goes well in egg dishes and with fish. I use garlic chives raw in salads and as a substitute for chives. The flavor is best in winter, especially after a few frosts. Younger leaves are more tender than older ones. In China, garlic chives usually is cooked as a vegetable potherb rather than used as a flavoring in other dishes. The Chinese often blanch alternate crops of garlic chives. Blanching causes the garlic chives to yellow and gives them a softer texture. Typically, the garlic chives are cut back, then shaded for 3-4 weeks before harvesting the pale yellow leaves. A simple way to do this is to cover with a layer of straw.

The dried seedheads of garli chive are as pretty as the flowers - download a large version (800x600) and plant some on your computer desktop.

The flowers smell like violets and are well suited for use in both fresh and dried arrangements. In Japan and China, the flowers are dried and ground to make a flavoring spice.

Features
Some authorities place the onions, garlics, leeks and their relatives in a family of their own, the Alliaceae, and others put them in the lily family, the Liliaceae. There are about 400 species in the genus Allium, including some magnificent ornamentals.

Steve Christman 2/20/00; updated 2/12/01, 9/8/01, 9/1/02, 8/27/03, 12/9/03

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