Species
+

Allium ursinum L.

čeremša, Ail des orses, Ajo selvadego, Ayo ursino

Climate known 58 photographs Bulb, tuber or caudex
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Allium ursinum, known as wild garlic, ramsons, cowleekes, cows's leek, cowleek, buckrams, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek, Eurasian wild garlic, onion grass, or bear's garlic, is a bulbous perennial flowering plant in the amaryllis family, Amaryllidaceae. It is native to Eurasia, where it grows in moist woodland. It is a wild relative of onion and garlic, all belonging to the same genus, Allium. There are two recognized subspecies: A. ursinum subsp. ursinum and A. ursinum subsp. ucrainicum.

Text from Wikipedia, “Allium ursinum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Allium

Allium is a large genus of monocotyledonous flowering plants with 1112 accepted species, making Allium the largest genus in the family Amaryllidaceae and among the largest plant genera in the world. Many of the species are edible, and some have a long history of cultivation and human consumption such as the onion, garlic, scallions, shallots, leeks, and chives.

Text from Wikipedia, “Allium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Amaryllidaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Denmark, Finland, Great Britain +27
Wild records
701 in range· 263 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
893mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 85 mm (CHELSA)
Light
4–35DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by Amaryllidaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 893 mm a year, wettest October at 85 mm, driest April at 56 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -5.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Aglitheis ursina (L.) Raf.; Allium latifolium Gilib.; Allium longipetiolatum St.-Lag.; Allium nemorale Salisb.; Allium petiolatum Lam. and 14 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by Amaryllidaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (638 mm of 893 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 15.4 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 893 mm a year, wettest October at 85 mm, driest April at 56 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

893 mm a year at the habitat, 638 mm of it June to January. Wettest month October at 85 mm, driest April at 56 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 680 mm to 1395 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -5.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -5.5 °C, the absolute minimum -18.1 °C, about 77 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 22.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -0.1 °C in February (across the envelope cells -3.8 °C to 2.3 °C), warmest day 21.8 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -5.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 5 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul; mean night from -0 °C in Feb to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 893 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 545 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -18.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 22.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°frost22.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-18.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 4–35RH 60–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 545 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C5 / 2–76 / 4–89 / 8–1113 / 11–1517 / 14–1920 / 17–2322 / 19–2522 / 19–2518 / 16–2014 / 12–169 / 7–105 / 3–7
Night °C0 / -4–3-0 / -4–22 / -0–44 / 3–69 / 7–1011 / 10–1314 / 12–1614 / 12–1511 / 9–127 / 6–94 / 1–61 / -3–3
Rain mm76 / 43–11560 / 39–9169 / 48–10856 / 43–9570 / 55–12574 / 57–13080 / 57–13180 / 60–13079 / 59–12685 / 56–13182 / 54–12582 / 56–128
DLI5 / 4–910 / 9–1517 / 16–2328 / 25–3033 / 31–3535 / 32–3734 / 31–3729 / 26–3220 / 18–2412 / 10–166 / 5–104 / 3–7
RH %67 / 63–6965 / 61–6763 / 59–6560 / 57–6360 / 58–6261 / 58–6360 / 57–6361 / 57–6463 / 60–6565 / 63–6667 / 64–6968 / 64–70

Each figure is the median across the 545 grid cells holding the 691 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 676:3526 (56.175, -3.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -18.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -5.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 22.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 545 distinct grid cells holding the 691 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 676:3526 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 56.00_-3.750, lapse-corrected +69 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 246 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeDenmark, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Corse, France, Portugal, Spain, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Sicilia, Belarus, Baltic States, Central European Russia, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus
Kew's description“bulbous geophyte” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker51.494, -3.194 · in the densest population, 394 records (56% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 701 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 263 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 114 km away. 10 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 701 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Allium ursinumAllium ursinumAllium ursinumAllium ursinumAllium ursinumAllium ursinumAllium ursinumAllium ursinum

Photographs: (c) Oleksii Vasyliuk, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) Andre Hosper, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Dave, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Allium ursinum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

The Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature version 2.1 (MEGAN2.1): an extended and updated framework for modeling biogenic emissions
Alex Guenther, Xiaoyan Jiang, Colette L. Heald, Tanarit Sakulyanontvittaya (2012) · Geoscientific model development
Non-bee insects are important contributors to global crop pollination
Romina Rader, Ígnasi Bartomeus, Lucas A. Garibaldi, Michael P. D. Garratt (2015) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Towards Advances in Medicinal Plant Antimicrobial Activity: A Review Study on Challenges and Future Perspectives
Natalia Vaou, Elisavet Stavropoulou, Chrysoula Voidarou, Christina Tsigalou (2021) · Microorganisms
Review on plant antimicrobials: a mechanistic viewpoint
Bahman Khameneh, Milad Iranshahy, Vahid Soheili, Bibi Sedigheh Fazly Bazzaz (2019) · Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control
Plant and fungal use in Tusheti, Khevsureti, and Pshavi, Sakartvelo (Republic of Georgia), Caucasus
Rainer W. Bussmann, Narel Y. Paniagua-Zambrana, Shalva Sikharulidze, Zaal Kikvidze (2016) · Acta Societatis Botanicorum Poloniae
Saponins as cytotoxic agents: a review
Irma Podolak, Agnieszka Galanty, Danuta Sobolewska (2010) · Phytochemistry Reviews
Wild food plant use in 21st century Europe: the disappearance of old traditions and the search for new cuisines involving wild edibles
Łukasz Łuczaj, Andréa Pieroni, Javier Tardío, Manuel Pardo‐de‐Santayana (2012) · Acta Societatis Botanicorum Poloniae
Interpretation manual of European Union habitats.
Carlos Romão (1996) · Archive of European Integration (AEI) (University of Pittsburgh)
Green extraction of natural products. Origins, current status, and future challenges
Farid Chemat, Maryline Abert Vian, Anne Sylvie Fabiano-Tixier, Jochen Strube (2019) · TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry
Effect of garlic on cardiovascular disorders: a review
S. Banerjee, Subir Kumar Maulik (2002) · Nutrition Journal
Economic and Medicinal Plant Research
(1989) · Elsevier eBooks

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Allium 12 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 10 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.