An invasive weed that came from Europe because it is a tasty and useful vegetable. It is much hated by wildflower connoisseurs, who accuse it of crowding out the natives in spring. The best thing to do with it is probably to eat it. These were blooming in a city yard in Beechview in the middle of April.
Family: Cruciferae (Brassicaceae).
Gray describes the genus and the species (which he lists as A. officinalis).
ALLIÀRIA Adans. Garlic Mustard.
Pods long, linear, angled; valves keeled, 3-nerved; stigma simple, sessile or nearly so. Oval sepals caducous. Pubescence simple or none.—Ours biennial with deltoid-ovate cordate dentate petiolate leaves and small white flowers. (Name from Allium, onion or garlic, referring to the odor.)
A . officinàlis Andrz. Tall; pods 2.5–5 cm. long, spreading, borne on short thick pedicels. (A. Alliaria Britton.) — Roadsides and near habitations, eastw., local. (Introd. from Eu.)
