Is it illegal to dig up Wild Garlic?
Ramsons (Allium ursinum, almost always called Wild garlic by British foragers nowadays) mark the proper start of the foraging season for many. Found in damp, dark woodlands and alongside tracks and watercourses, the leaves and flowers are a popular choice for beginners and seasoned foragers alike.
All parts of Wild Garlic are edible (leaves, flowers, stems, roots – even the seed heads left behind in mid-summer) but this itself leads to a legal and ethical problem – can you get to those parts, legally?
Digging up edible wild plants
A lot of what governs what you can (and cannot) lawfully do with wild plants in the UK comes from the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 .
Under that act, in Part 1, Section 13, it says:
(1)Subject to the provisions of this Part, if any person—
(a)intentionally picks, uproots or destroys any wild plant included in Schedule 8; or
(b)not being an authorised person, intentionally uproots any wild plant not included in that Schedule,he shall be guilty of an offence.
(2)Subject to the provisions of this Part, if any person—
(a)sells, offers or exposes for sale, or has in his possession or transports for the purpose of sale, any live or dead wild plant included in Schedule 8, or any part of, or anything derived from, such a plant; or
(b)publishes or causes to be published any advertisement likely to be understood as conveying that he buys or sells, or intends to buy or sell, any of those things,he shall be guilty of an offence.
(3)Notwithstanding anything in subsection (1), a person shall not be guilty of an offence by reason of any act made unlawful by that subsection if he shows that the act was an incidental result of a lawful operation and could not reasonably have been avoided.
(4)In any proceedings for an offence under subsection (2)(a), the plant in question shall be presumed to have been a wild plant unless the contrary is shown.
That’s the version for England and Wales, but the Scottish version is broadly the same in terms of digging up plants.
The Schedule 8 referred to above is the list of ‘Protected Species’, i.e. species that you cannot pick, dig up or otherwise harm without a special licence – even if they are on your own land. That list includes things like Bluebells or some orchids – but NOT Ramsons/Wild Garlic.
The bit that refers to digging up wild plants that aren’t in Schedule 8 is 1(a) – where it mentions ‘not being an authorised person‘. An ‘authorised person’ (in terms of foraging) would be either the person who owns the land – or someone who has permission to dig up plants from that land.
The Short Answer
The quick answer here is that if you do not have the permission of the landowner (or it is your land) then you cannot legally dig up (or pull up) Wild garlic roots and bulbs.
There isn’t a lawful way around this – you need to find the landowner and ask them for permission, or buy up the land yourself (probably not a practical solution).
So what can you do with Wild garlic?
If you cannot get hold of that landowner (not always easy when it’s the side of a country lane or an anonymous block of woodland) then all you will be able to lawfully harvest will be whatever is above ground – the leaves, flowers and stem.
This also brings in the ethical question – how much should you take? Overharvesting of Wild garlic is real issue, and you can see the effects yourself if you visit an easily-accessible area near a town, city or tourist hotspot. Even in the woods at the edge of our village you can see where someone has come through and hoovered up a patch of leaves – it doesn’t take long to fill a shopping bag or basket, and when people grab big handfuls of the leaves it can soon denude a small patch.
Those plants need those leaves to photosynthesise and bring energy back down into the roots for growth next year, and removing the leaves (or trampling on them) will reduce their chances of coming back up next year.
Basically – if you enjoy foraging for Ramsons/Wild garlic then you have an interest in ensuring there is enough to harvest next year – and to do that you can limit what you pick to AT MOST 5% of what is in any one area(or 1 in 20).
If you find an area where it is obvious that other foragers have been very active then you might want to head elsewhere – it’s more effort, but may end up with your very own secret foraging spot.
Richard is a UK wilderness skills and outdoor safety instructor with over a decade of experience working on expeditions, in SAR, training the military and emergency services.
A passionate forager, hunter, angler and outdoorsman, he has appeared on television and web series numerous times, and is a regular contributor to podcasts, magazines and other publications.