Garlic Mustard

An aggressive biennial that spreads between 20 and 210 feet a year.

BY: Elizabeth Noll

Say you’re taking a stroll through the woods. It’s spring and the wildflowers are out. In fact, there are dense stands of one kind in particular: a thigh-high plant with triangular bright green leaves and pretty white four-petaled flowers. Uh-oh. Your favorite woods have been invaded by garlic mustard, an aggressive biennial that threatens native plants and wildlife in the eastern half of the United States and Canada.

This herb has long been used for medicine and food in its native Europe, Asia, and Africa and was introduced to North America about 150 years ago. It spreads through undisturbed woodland at a rapid clip: between 20 and 120 feet a year.

Damage
Garlic mustard outcompetes native plants—from wildflowers to tree seedlings—by taking the available water, light, and space. Butterflies and other wildlife that feed on the disappearing native plants (or on the insects that feed on the plants) are also threatened.

Control
• For small stands, pull out plants by hand. Be sure to get the whole root, as new plants can grow from root pieces. Destroy the plants, especially if they’re flowering.
• Control large stands by cutting plants to ground level so they don’t flower and produce seed. Chemicals or controlled burns can be used in some cases.
• Seeds of garlic mustard can stay viable for more than five years, so no matter what method you use, repeat every year for at least five years to be sure the infestation is gone.

—photo by Tracy Walsh.

Comments

By Gardening Man Stephanio Wednesday, November 03, 2010 1:43 AM

With all the hunger in the world, if it is Eatable, than let the people harvest it for a cheap food source. I say this because In the Summer time I go out and Pick wild Rasberrys, if you saw how they can take over a wooded Lot you to would call them a Noctious Weed. I pick Black Caps, which is a wild Black Rasberry, which is thorney as all get out. When I lived in South Eastrin Wisconsin we wer so Poor growing Up we went out and Picked wild Mustard to eat, I was a Child and remembered this Excurshion, up to thattime we never thought of it This was untill We Met an African American Man who was makeing up some Mustard Greens, My mom tolsd him she was taught the only part that is Eatable was the Flower and it was used for Making Mustard. Then he asked her what do you think in Slave times they survived off of when the Masters would not Feed them Properly, Wild Mustard, Racoons, Possims, Chitterlings, Collard Greens, and Turnup Greens, while the Masters ate very well they had to Forage for food just to survive. I also go out into the Forest and When they Rippen pick Wild Apples, I mean sometimes they don't look to good, they look as if they have a film of Moss on them Especially if growen Under or Near a Pine tree. But Boy do those apples taste good, you can not compare it to anything you will buy in the store, Sweet, sometimes they are Bitter but they still taste better than the ones Raised Domsecetally, for on our Tables. Give People a permitt to Harvest it to eat, have someone there from the D.N.R. To collect the Roots and Flowers when people harvest the rest of the plant the leaves for food, the seeds are more than likely eatable so you would roast them, dehidrate them, and then flash freeze them, and it will kill the embryo within so it can be eaton without the thret if someone dropps a seed on the ground it would germinate. I sum this up in 3 words Food, Food, and Foode.

By flowerchild66 Tuesday, May 03, 2011 8:04 PM

This has been coming up in my backyard for a couple of years. Didn't know what it was until now. Do rabbits eat this plant?

By cmilliken Tuesday, August 28, 2012 7:34 AM

I love the idea! Do you cook it like spinach or just use it in a salad? I have seen this weed all over in my gardening experience.