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We today collected some wild garlic leaves (Allium ursinum) in the garden, and we found small points on the leaves. They are white or yellow, it's difficult to tell because the points are just half a millimeter big. The wiipedia article on wild garlic say that the wild garlic is infected by several species of the genus Melampsora.
Now my question is : can I and my family still eat the wild garlic leaves, or are the Melampsora fungi producing any substances that could be harmful for our health ?


I already searched on google for "Melampsora", but I did not find any information on the harmfulness of the Melampsora species after reading scientific publications for half an hour.
TheEagle
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    Can you add some pictures? – Spectra Mar 22 '21 at 07:12
  • @Spectra no, I can't, and I did not want you to tell me which fungi species it is, but whether any of the Melampsora species are toxic, and I don't think you need images for that (sorry if i sound rude, I don'T want to, it's because of my bad english) – TheEagle Mar 23 '21 at 01:33

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Making recommendations regarding toxicity of edibles is always a problematic arena, however a search on "wild garlic melampsora" delivers a number of sites that say if the leaves are infected you can still eat the bulb, which is what most people are interested in. You can read for yourself the majority inclination.

This always presupposes that your diagnosis of the disease, if that is what it is, is truly Melampsora (Caeoma allii-ursini) or garlic rust. There is a good site here - it is in French but has some very nice descriptive detail and close up images of garlic rust. Find a magnifying glass/microscope and compare what you see with these pics for a more certain identification. If it bears no resemblance then continue searching or post close up images of what you have, otherwise your description is a bit thin.

Colin Beckingham
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  • Sorry, but I wanted to know whether I can still eat the _leaves_, not the bulb ! – TheEagle Mar 22 '21 at 18:22
  • Collin, in A. ursinum usually the leaves are used. The bulbs are tiny and not many cooks bother to fiddle with them. – Stephie Mar 22 '21 at 18:35