Few-flowered Garlic

Few-flowered Garlic Allium paradoxum

A mass of Few-flowered Garlic Allium paradoxum carpets the shadier, dryer parts of Drayton Beauchamp Churchyard and the adjacent canal bank. Identifying the plant was not a problem as the colony at Drayton Beauchamp is actually mentioned in Fitter and Fitter's Wild Flowers of Great Britain and Ireland.
Native to the Caucasus and Iran, Few-flowered Garlic was first recorded in Edinburgh in 1863 and is now naturalised and abundant in Southern Scotland and the East of England. Flowering from April to June, it is a highly invasive plant that spreads rapidly by means of bulbils which are small bulbs produced at the top of the stem.
I picked a few leaves to try out in a salad and they were delicious, although I found out later that they are slightly poisonous, especially to dogs. I didn't notice any ill effects though! 

Few-flowered Garlic Allium paradoxum, Drayton Beauchamp. (22/04/2012)

Few-flowered Garlic Allium paradoxum, Drayton Beauchamp. (22/04/2012)

Few-flowered Garlic Allium paradoxum, Drayton Beauchamp. (22/04/2012)