Garlic Mustard

Alliaria petiolata

'This herbe is not much used in medicine but some do use with meates instead of garlyke'
Rembert Dodoens Flemish physician and botanist 1517-1585

1. Garlic mustard or  'Jack-by-the-hedge' - by a hedge.

One of the more striking and statuesque flowers of late spring is Garlic Mustard or Alliaria petiolata.
It forms impressive and hard to miss banks of flowers in many parts of Leazes Park.
Historically, garlic mustard has gone by a wide variety of names including garlic wort, poor man's mustard, poor man's treacle and Jack-by-the-hedge. You only have to crush one of the leaves between your fingers to get an idea where these names come from. It has a rather pungent and arresting odour. You can use it cooking but if you do I would not recommend harvesting the leaves from Leazes Park; you never know what those dogs were doing before you got to the plant.
Garlic mustard belongs to the cabbage family or Brassicaceae. The general features of this family are 4 unfused sepals, 4 unfused petals arranged in a cross shape, 6 stamens (4 long 2 short) and a superior ovary composed of 2 fused carpels. Many of Brassicaceae are rather small and insignificant but garlic mustard, because of its size and interesting leaves grabs our attention. The plant has an upright and unbranched habit and can reach 1 metre in height.
The basal leaves are more rounded or kidney-shaped with crenations. Further up the stem, the leaves become more triangular and the margin more serrated. The heart-shaped or cordate base is maintained from the base up.
The inflorescence is a terminal raceme which means that newer flowers are found towards the top of the plant and older flowers lower down. This is not always obvious early in the season when the inflorescence can look flat-topped (picture 3). However, if you look carefully you can see that the more mature flowers are arranged around the perimeter and immature buds at the centre and if you follow their stalks (strictly speaking pedicels) back to the stem you can tell that the pedicels serving the more mature flowers originate further down the stem. This becomes even more obvious further on in the season when elongated fruits develop from the ovary, the longest most mature fruits are to be found further down the stem (picture 4).
Individual flowers are about 6mm across and have the characteristic cruciate shape of unfused petals.  Looking carefully from above you can see the stigma in the centre of the flower and a whorl of 6 stamens surrounding the stigma (picture 5).

2. A bank of garlic- mustard nesting among the nettles.


3. In this picture, the inflorescence is not obviously a raceme.

4. More mature inflorescence showing the typical structure of a raceme. Unopened buds at the top,
then mature flowers followed by developing fruits.

5. Central flower shows 4 un-fused petals, 6 stamens and central stigma.

Where to find Garlic Mustard in Leazes Park

Garlic-mustard pops up in so many places that there is little point in giving a complete list. Particularly good places are the embankment between Leazes Terrace and the Tennis Courts, and area to the north of St James' Park.

6. Good places to find garlic mustard white arrows



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