You can’t miss it, the carpeting green leaves, the white flowers, and the smell. In England it is known as Ramsons, a word with roots as ancient as the first clearings in the forest. Hramsa is Old English, meaning ‘strong-smelling’ or ‘pungent’.
In French it is known as ail des ours, arriving directly from its botanical name Allium ursinum, the garlic of the bears. In Dutch, daslook, simply wild garlic, though no less evocative for it.
Bears, waking from hibernation, are said to seek it out, a Spring tonic drawn from the woodland floor. Given how readily it is advancing, perhaps we should consider doing the same, in the absence of bears.
It is a lover of nitrogen-rich soils, and here, along a stream by the Merry Horse, it is entirely at home.