Garlic Mustard is a biennial wildflower. It has heart-shaped, coarsely-toothed leaves that smell of garlic when crushed. After sowing, it flowers in its second year, producing button-like clusters of white four-petalled flowers from April – June. In the wild, Garlic Mustard is found in damp hedgerows, wood edges and other shady places. It is also known as Jack-by-the-Hedge and Hedge Garlic. and can grow over a metre tall.
Uses for Garlic Mustard
Garlic Mustard leaves are good for the digestive system and can be added to salads. The roots can be chopped up and heated in oil to make an ointment to fub on the chest for bronchitis. A yellow dye is also obtainable from the plant. In the seventeenth century it was used to flavour salted fish and meat.
This is not a prescription for use, always check with a qualified herbalist!
Wildlife Value of Garlic Mustard
Garlic Mustard is a food plant of the Orange Tip butterfly and the Green-veined White butterfly. As Garlic Mustard is self-fertilising, it isn’t totally reliant on pollinating insects. The Orange-tip butterfly lays its eggs on the plant and they turn bright orange before hatching roundabout June time. The caterpillars eat the seed pods. The Green-veined White butterfly, however, only eats the leaves, so both butterfly species can live harmoniously on the plant! Hoverflies are also quite partial to a bit of Garlic Mustard.