Leaf
Vatadoshu · CC0
Perennial leek
Allium ampeloprasum L.
Also known as: Wild leek, Broadleaf wild leek
Family: Amaryllidaceae
50 cm to 1 m tall, sometimes more in flower
Hedges, banks, dry and uncultivated places, waste ground; also grown in the vegetable garden as a perennial vegetable
Flowering: April – June, flowering fairly rare
Full sun
Hardy to about -15°C
❓ How do you recognise this plant?
It is the wild ancestor from which the cultivated leek descends: the two look almost identical, but wild leek grows in a perennial clump of several tightly packed plants, with no need to resow it every year. Wild leek looks almost identical to the cultivated leek, of which it is the wild ancestor: the same flat, sheathing leaves forming a false stem. But it grows in a compact clump of several tightly packed plants that come back every year without resowing, whereas the cultivated leek, sown each season, forms a single, much more regular plant.
🍃 Leaves
Broad, sheathing, flat, blue-green, appearing from late summer and growing all winter until June, very close to those of the cultivated leek.
🌸 Flowers
Large, dense, spherical umbel of lilac-pink flowers, borne on a sturdy flowering stem; flowering fairly rare, the plant multiplying mainly by its bulbils.
🍎 Fruits
Small capsule, formed only after successful flowering, fairly rare.
🪵 Bark
Compact clump of several main bulbs surrounded by numerous bulbils; thick stem formed by the sheathing leaf bases, which can exceed 1 cm in diameter.
🗺️ Distribution
Mediterranean region; found mainly in the south of France, on banks and dry places, rarer and localised further north (Vendée, Corsica).
🐝 Value for pollinators
Large lilac-pink umbel rich in nectar when flowering occurs, visited by bees and bumblebees.
✂️ Horticultural uses
Grown as a hardy perennial vegetable ("perennial leek") that needs no annual resowing, unlike the cultivated leek.
⚠️ Possible toxicity
No known toxicity to humans — bulb and young shoots edible, with a stronger garlic flavour than the cultivated leek; like other alliums, potentially irritating to dogs and cats in large quantity.
⚠️ Look-alike species
Perennial leek
Allium ampeloprasum
Leek
Allium porrum
Wild leek looks almost identical to the cultivated leek, of which it is the wild ancestor: the same flat, sheathing leaves forming a false stem. But it grows in a compact clump of several tightly packed plants that come back every year without resowing, whereas the cultivated leek, sown each season, forms a single, much more regular plant.
🌿 Other Amaryllidaceae to discover
ℹ️ Educational profile — do not use it to judge whether a plant is edible or safe.
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