Stamp of the Day: Gräslök (chives)

The Swedish name for chives if you translate it literally means 'grass onion' and that is what the leaves look like.  Bunches of tiny linear leaves from tufted plants. Of course the plants have no nodes, a tell-tale oniony smell, and very ungrasslike purple flower heads, but otherwise, just an onion grass.  Chives grow wild in Sweden, and here in New Jersey you can grow them as a deer-proof garden plant.  Well, I do, but nobody else has figured this out yet.  Chives really should be more popular here, it is a great plant both for its taste and looks. (Latin name - Allium schoenoprasum)