Wild Green Onions: How to Identify Them Safely (And Why I Still Grow My Own)

How to identify wild green onions

Every spring and early summer, I notice what appear to be wild green onions growing along the creek bed near my home. Even though I grow green onions in my own garden and can easily pick up a bunch at the grocery store, I still think it's an important skill to learn how to recognize edible plants in the wild.

That doesn't mean I harvest every onion-shaped plant I see.

In fact, my personal rule is simple:

If in doubt, throw it out. Never eat a wild plant unless you are 100% certain of its identification.

wild onions

Why I Love Green Onions

Green onions are one of those vegetables I always try to keep on hand. I use them for:

Scrambled eggs
Homemade chicken stock
Potato casseroles
Soups
Baked potato toppings
Fresh salads

One of my favorite potato chip flavors growing up was sour cream and green onion, so they've always been a favorite in our house.

green onions from the grocery store

Don't Throw Away Grocery Store Green Onions

One trick I use is saving the white roots from grocery store green onions.

Simply place the roots in a small glass of water for a few days until new green leaves begin growing. Once they've started producing fresh shoots, I transplant them into a flower pot where they continue growing for weeks. It's an easy way to have fresh onion greens right outside the back door.

One of my favorite money-saving gardening tricks is propagating green onions from the grocery store. I simply place the rooted ends in a glass of water until fresh green shoots appear, then transplant them into a pot for a continuous harvest.

How to identify edible wild onions

How to Identify Wild Green Onions

One of the easiest characteristics to check is the stem.

A true wild onion has:

✔ A strong onion or garlic smell when the leaves are crushed
✔ Round, hollow leaves (not flat)
✔ An underground bulb
✔ Round clusters of flowers when in bloom

The onion smell alone is not enough for identification. Always look at several characteristics before deciding whether a plant is edible.

How to tell the difference on what is an onion or not

Beware of Poisonous Look-Alikes

Several poisonous plants can resemble wild onions when they're young, especially death camas, which can be deadly if eaten.

One of the biggest differences is:

Wild onions smell like onions.
Poisonous look-alikes do not.

Many toxic plants also have flat, solid leaves instead of the round, hollow leaves found on most wild onions.

I'll include comparison photos below so you can see the differences for yourself.

My onions going to seed - saving seeds to plant more!

A Skill Worth Learning

Knowing how to identify edible wild plants doesn't mean you have to depend on them every day. For me, it's simply another preparedness skill worth having.

Growing green onions in water

I enjoy growing my own onions and buying them fresh from the grocery store, but if I ever needed to recognize a wild food source, I'd rather have that knowledge than not.

Just remember my favorite rule: