Like the commercial varieties of garlic and onions, the native plant, ramps, is a lily. Lilies have flowers formed almost always from either 3 or 6 petals, grow from a large underground bulb, and the leaves have veins that run in parallel, orderly rows.
Ramps and their relatives have been used medicinally to treat a host of ailments, and one of these old-time remedies has crossed over into the world of modern medicine. One of the most common uses of both garlic and ramps was to expel internal worms, and a concentrated form is now produced commercially. It’s called allicin, which comes from the scientific name Allium, the group name for all onions, garlic, and ramps.

Ramps are most easily identified by their leaves. Usually two broad, flat leaves are produced from each bulb. They are a soft, silvery green, easily bruised, from 1 to 2½ inches wide and 5-10 inches long. Like many other spring wildflowers, the leaves of ramps do not persist throughout the summer, but wither away and disappear in June. A cluster of small, white flowers is produced after the leaves shrivel.

Ramps grow in rich forests, where the topsoil is deep and fertile. Although most abundant in the southern Appalachians, they occur as far north as Canada and west to Minnesota. They are different from the field garlic that grows so profusely in suburban lawns all over the Southeast. Field garlic has leaves that are skinny, hollow cylinders, usually 1/8 inch in width and up to 12 inches long.

Most people dig up the bulbs and discard the leaves when they harvest ramps to eat, but the leaves are also delicious.  If the bulbs are eaten, the plant is destroyed. I can recommend a sustainable method of harvesting that results in less destruction but equal gustatory delight. From my own patch of ramps, I collect one of the two leaves from each plant. Yes, the leaves are delicious. I honestly prefer them over the strongly flavored bulb. Best of all, by leaving the bulb, I have a permanent source. This harvest even allows the plant to set seeds.

If you collect the ramps yourself, be absolutely sure of your identification before eating them. There are other lilies emerging in the forest at this time of year. A good field guide to plants, available at your local bookstore, will help. Also remember that plants should not be removed from local, state, or national forests or from private land unless you have the landowner’s permission. As a result of over-collecting, many former ramp forests have been closed to harvesting. Others require a permit for collection.

If you’ve never eaten ramps before, perhaps a ramps festival is the place to start. The festival in Waynesville, North Carolina, is on May 5th this year. Sylva and Robbinsville hold festivals on the 27th and 28th of April, and other communities often sponsor suppers at which ramps are featured. Ramp festivals occur in many other mountain communities of Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia as well.

Photograph: Ramps in their native habitat of a fertile mountain cove in Appalachia.