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Typical of wild garlic is that it often grows over large areas, sometimes several hundred square meters in the forest, and completely covers the ground. A sure sign is the smell of garlic when you rub a leaf.
Mascha Brichta/dpa-tmn
Only if you look closely can you distinguish wild garlic from other, highly poisonous plants. blue News shows you the differences.
Wild garlic grows from March to May and is very popular on dinner plates. However, a case from Austria shows that its consumption is not without risks: a married couple picked wild garlic. However, there was a serious mix-up. Instead of wild garlic, a highly poisonous plant ended up in the soup pot. The couple were admitted to hospital in stable condition, but died there a few days later.
blue News answers the most important questions and explains how to distinguish wild garlic from its highly poisonous doppelgangers.
Wild garlic looks very similar to the poisonous lily of the valley and autumn crocus.
In the case of lily of the valley, the bell stalks come out of the ground together with the leaves. The underside of the leaves is shiny.
Andrea Warnecke/dpa-tmn
The leaves can be distinguished by various small characteristics:
Where is the wild garlic? The differences are clearly recognizable on closer inspection.
Toxinfo.ch
The distinguishing features of wild garlic, lily of the valley and autumn crocus at a glance.
dpa-infografik GmbH/dpa-tmn
They are all beautiful - but two out of three are unfortunately poisonous. The way they grow gives an indication of which plant it is.
Picture: iStock
Unlike our plants, wild garlic is poisonous to dogs and horses, warns Tina Hölscher, a vet from the animal welfare organization Aktion Tier. It destroys the red blood cells and thus leads to anemia. This is due to the effect of the toxic substance methylcysteine sulphoxide in wild garlic.
The first symptoms of such poisoning are irritation of the mucous membranes. However, these can hardly be diagnosed in the animal as it cannot communicate its symptoms. The owner usually only notices that something is wrong with their pet when diarrhea and vomiting occur.
There is no real antidote. The vet can only try to stabilize the animal's circulation with infusions. In the worst case, a blood transfusion may be necessary to replace the damaged red blood cells.
It is difficult to say how much wild garlic is fatal for a dog or horse. The dose depends on the weight of the animal and the amount of toxin contained in the wild garlic. Both vary greatly. "Therefore, dog and horse owners are well advised to simply not feed their animals any wild garlic at all, then they are on the safe side," advises the vet. She also recommends removing wild garlic and bulbs from the ground in paddocks.
The leaves of the autumn crocus look very similar to wild garlic, but are highly poisonous.
Lukas Barth/dpa/dpa-tmn
