Bee-friendly Plant of the Month - Onions

Plants of the onion family have spent millions of years evolving a cocktail of sulphur-based compounds designed to make them unpalatable to predators. These compounds, when released into the air, react with water to form a weak solution of sulphuric acid, hence their eyewatering reputation. Imagine their disappointment, then, when humans decided that this pungency was a desirable characteristic rather than a deterrent.

Since so many members of the genus Allium share this distinctive flavour and, as members of the Lily family, have attractive flowers, they have become popular garden plants both as vegetables and as ornamentals.  The Chive is one of the most familiar and is long established in cultivation; often said to have been introduced by the Romans, it is almost certainly native to parts of western and northern Britain, where it grows on limestone rocks and cliff faces.

There are several other species of wild onion, some native and some certainly introduced, but the majority are relatively scarce or downright rare, such as the Round-headed Leek found only on the rocks of the Avon Gorge. But one member of this distinctive family is both widespread and very obvious in the landscape.

Wild garlic - Allium ursinum - differs from its cousins in having a broad oval leaf, but one sniff is all that is needed to confirm its family affinities. Known variously as Ramsons, Devil’s Posy, Stinking Nanny and Gipsy’s Gibbles, this plant of damp woods and stream banks will, when happy, carpet huge areas with its fresh green leaves and star-like white flowers. The scent is so pungent that large colonies are almost always smelled before they are seen, but the flavour of the leaves is surprisingly mild and they have become a fashionable addition to salads and pasta sauces in up-market restaurants.

Sufficiently different to have been consigned to its own genus, Nectaroscordum siculum is an elegant architectural plant with nodding, bell-like flowers in shades of pink and gold. The foliage has a less pleasant smell than many of the onions, but the flowers have a honey scent and the abundant nectar they produce makes them very popular with bees.