Round-headed leek or Crow garlic: how to tell them apart?
Round-headed leek and Crow garlic look alike and are often mixed up. Here is how to tell them apart, feature by feature, with their photos and the details to look for.
⚡ The quick answer
Round-headed leek
Allium sphaerocephalon
Crow garlic
Allium vineale
Both form a globular violet flower head on a long bare stem, but round-headed leek has a dense, uniform head, without bulbils, of a dark purple that is almost black, whereas crow garlic often mixes numerous burgundy-pink bulbils in with its few pale pink flowers, giving the head an irregular look.
🍃 Leaves
Narrow, cylindrical, hollow, bright green, often withering before flowering
Cylindrical, hollow, with a narrow groove on the upper side, glaucous, 25 to 45 cm long
🌸 Flowers
Small dark purple flowers grouped in a dense ball at the top of a long stem
Small, tight, globular head at the top of the stem, mixing a few pale pink to whitish flowers with numerous burgundy-pink bulbils that often replace the flowers; protruding stamens.
🍎 Fruits
Small capsules containing black seeds
Capsule rare, the plant multiplying mainly by its aerial bulbils.
🪵 Bark
Underground bulb, bare upright flower stalk.
Ovoid bulb surrounded by numerous bulbils, bare upright flower stalk.
📏 Size
40 to 80 cm tall
30 to 80 cm tall
🗺️ Habitat
Dry meadows, rockeries, gardens, free-draining soils
Fields, vineyards, wasteland, dry meadows, banks
⚠️ Toxicity
No known toxicity to humans; like other alliums, potentially irritating to dogs and cats in large quantities.
No known toxicity to humans (edible, pronounced garlic flavour); like other garlics, potentially irritating to dogs and cats in large quantities. Regarded as an invasive weed in crops, as it gives a garlic taint to milk and cereals.
🔎 And from the Crow garlic side
Both form a globular violet flower head on a long bare stem, but crow garlic often mixes numerous burgundy-pink bulbils in with its few pale pink flowers, giving the head an irregular look, whereas round-headed leek has a dense, uniform head, without bulbils, of a dark purple that is almost black.
🌿 Go further
Want to practise spotting these details on real photos? Floraneo offers profiles and quizzes for dozens of look-alike species.
ℹ️ Educational profile — do not use it to judge whether a plant is edible or safe.