Allium triquetrum L.
Three-cornered Garlic
Bulb whitish, globose, ovate, 1 × 1-(2) cm, with offset bulbs; sheaths elongate, white, papery, to above ground level. Leaves 2-5, broadly linear, = or overtopping scape, strongly channelled. Scape 20-60 cm high, triquetrous, sheathed by leaves at base. Umbels 3-15-flowered, lax without bulbils; pedicels ± drooping, twice length of flowers; spathe-valves 2, ± deciduous. Flowers 10-15-(20) mm long, ± 15 mm diam., campanulate, white; segments oblong, acute, with green central stripe. Stamens ½ length of perianth; filaments simple without appendages. Capsule c. 7 × 7 mm, light brown. Seeds c. 5 mm long, black.
N. North Auckland; Auckland-Auckland City, Thames; Gisborne - Opotiki; Wellington - Manawatu, Wellington City. S. Nelson; Marlborough - Blenheim; Westland - Camerons, Greymouth, Hokitika; Canterbury - near Christchurch; Otago - Dunedin; Southland - Riverton. St.
(S.W. Europe, N. Africa)
First record: Allan 1934: 45-46. Allan suggest that Kirk' s record of Allium fragrans (N.Z) Dep Agric. Ann. Rep. 7, 1899, 225) may have been A. triquetrum.
First collection: Onehunga, Harbour View Road, on Waste land, H. Carse, 9.10.1928 ().
FL. 10-11.
A. triquetrum is distinctive with its unpleasant odour, ± fleshy, easily crushed, strongly keeled leaves and triquetrous scapes, white flowers, and absence of aerial bulbils.
Three-cornered garlic is a troublesome and persistent weed of gardens, shaded waste places, rarely of grassland. In some urban localities, it is established in abundance on roadside banks, in hedgerows, in shaded gullies and waste land, and on slopes under sparse shrubby cover in domestic sections. The offensive smell and readily crushed leaves can at times be a nuisance to picnickers on shaded river banks or under trees in parks etc.
Spread is by seed and offset bulbs carried by drains, in soil for topdressing gardens, and in spoil used as fill or in road making. A. triquetrum is likely to have come to N.Z. in part as a deliberate introduction for culinary purposes, and also as a casual introduction in soil with horticultural plants. This weed is still reaching domestic gardens in soil about ornamental plants.
