Among the ancient woods of the west, ghosts of creatures long gone linger in an odour that grows stronger by the day. That first whiff came in February with a lift of a chill breeze. Or was it stirred by the brush of a blackbird’s wing? Either way, a jolt of recognition made me exclaim in soft exultation: “Bärlauch!” The leaves poking up at that winter’s tail were no more than fingernail extensions. Today, the hand-length spears make sprays that splay outwards, lapping and overlapping each other, carpeting the slopes to the exclusion of all else. A feast of greens. Legend has it that the strengthening smell would rouse great beasts from their winter slumber, to chow down on the only available edible and abundant food of the woods. My uncle, who grew up among forests in northern Germany that are so big you would struggle to walk them in a day, told me the story with wonder in his voice. In Britain, we deny the plant its magical resonance by calling it wild garlic, or ramsons – a Saxon word that has lost its meaning. Peep under the Latin cloak and the scientific tag Allium ursinum reveals all – it is bear’s garlic. A chive-like scent hangs in the air, a condiment to elevate any walk, though in truth, the tang dips in and out of my consciousness. When it comes again, I hear the smell as the high notes of a violin, keening in a minor key. April has brought out its flowers, a cluster of six-fingered white crowns opening on each plant. In my old woodland haunts of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire, a lilac blaze of bluebells was the norm, bear’s garlic was a rarity and, even then, in spreads not much bigger than a kitchen table. Here, truly the west is white, the plant flourishing in woods, hedges and riverbanks alike. By midsummer, the crowns will fall, scattering their seeds for the next generation in another year. The now-tender leaves will be leathery old flags, exuding an ignoble pong of old onions. And those phantom bears, their bellies full, will have drifted out of memory. • Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian’s Country Diary, 2018-2024 is published by Guardian Faber; order at guardianbookshop.com and get a 15% discount
Author: Derek Niemann