Alliaria Petiolata - Cultivation and Uses

Cultivation and Uses

The chopped leaves are used for flavoring in salads and sauces such as pesto, and sometimes the flowers and fruit are included as well. These are best when young, and provide a mild flavour of both garlic and mustard. The seeds are sometimes used to season food directly in France.

Garlic mustard was once used medicinally as a disinfectant or diuretic, and was sometimes used to heal wounds.

In Europe as many as 69 species of insects and seven species of fungus utilize Garlic Mustard as a food plant, including the larvae of some Lepidoptera species such as the Garden Carpet moth.