Garlic Mustard is a biennial-taking two years to flower. The first year you get a basal rosette of leaves. The second year the plant shoots up and produces small white four-petaled flowers and long seed pods or siliques typical of the mustard family. It is important to pull the whole plant up by the roots and dispose of in the garbage before these seeds are sprung! Do not compost.

It is an edible plant-can use the leaves in soups, salads, chip dip with that garlic flavor. The roots and leaves can be used for pesto. 

The plant is not native to the US and actually crowds out native plants-even sending a chemical into the soil to stop other wildflowers from growing close to it over time. Please spend some time this spring removing it from our island preserves! Take a photo of yourself removing a garbage bag of it for part of our Earth Week challenge!

Here is the first year basal rosettes-notice crenate-wavy shaped leaves.

Here is the second year plant with small four petal white flowers.