Garlic mustard is a biennial plant – in the first year, plants appear as a rosette of green leaves close to the ground; these rosettes remain green through the winter and develop into mature flowering plants the following spring.

It is believed it was intentionally introduced to North America from Europe as a medicinal and food plant. It can be found growing in disturbed ecosystems, or in forest understories as it is a shade-tolerant plant.

It reproduces by seed only and is unpalatable for herbivore grazers. It grows from a long white taproot that smells like horseradish.

East Kootenay Invasive Species Council

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