Garlic cress (Peltaria alliacea) is an evergreen, ground-covering wild plant with a flavor of cress, mustard and toasted garlic. It’s quite rare to see. I’ve grown it since 2017 and it has become one of our favorite seasoning plants, esp. as it is green in winter. I think it has a lot of potential.
It’s nearest relative is Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), another wild cress that I find much stronger and fiery. So not only is Peltaria alliacea milder and sweeter, it is also perennial, easy to grow and is one of the few plants I know in the Brassicaceae that spreads by rhizomes, which means it can both ground-cover and is very easy to propagate vegetatively.
In fact, the plant seems to have been propagated in that way so much that most of the plants going around in Europe seems to be the same clone. This is a problem for me. I want to domesticate and adapt this plant. For years, I have not been able to get seed from it because it seems to be self-incompatible. So first step in domestication has been to rejuvenate the plant’s ability to set seed.
In recent years, I managed to get some different genetics into my stand through some other clone and the plants now seem to produce some seed of which I’ve grown the first couple of seedlings and planted them into the stand again. Over time, pollination should improve in the stand as there are more and more different clones there.
This year I’ve gotten the best seed crop so far with clearly viable seed.
The plant is native to Southern Austria around Schneeberg as well as Slovenia, Hungary, Rumania and has naturalized somewhat (not exactly sure how much) in the UK. Grows in forest edges and stony hills. If anyone has access to seed of this plant, I would obviously be interested in swapping.
NICE! I was thinking of Breeding Garlic Mustard for a less Bitter Flavor, is Garlic Cress bitter at all? I’m not sure if Garlic Mustard & Garlic Cress could cross, might be a little too wide of a jump (But it’s Brassicaceae family after all, they make wide jumps all the time).
Here’s the Phylogenic Tree on the Thlaspideae Tribe. It seems Thlaspi is more closely related. I’ve tried thlaspi, they taste much nicer than Garlic Mustard & have a Goldfish crackers after taste (Still Spicy tho). Have you tried Thlaspi, does it compare with Peltaria alliaceae?
Also the seed pods look a lot like Thalspi Pods, I think that whole clade may be cross compatible & worth investigating. If you have Thlaspi around, it’s worth crossing.
Also you say evergreen perennial? Does that mean There’s always Leaves to harvest even thru all of winter? Do the leaves taste sweeter after frost?
Also are the roots edible? Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) has edible spicy small roots that taste like horseraddish, it’s not far-fetched to say Garlic Cress (Peltaria alliacea) also has roots to try right?
Do you have a picture of the seedlings? I’m curious, how much they resemble Thlaspi & Garlic Mustard seedlings.
As I think I wrote above, Garlic cress is bitter, but less so than Alliaria petiolata. It’s green in winter yes and like most other winter green plants get sweeter in cold weather. I’m not sure what traits I would want from Alliaria petiolata to cross into the plant. In my mind, Garlic cress is superior in the ways I want to use the plant. Perhaps one thing I like better on Alliaria petiolata are the consistency of the flower buds - they are still too bitter for me. I haven’t tasted the roots.
