Elephant garlic (Allium ampeloprasum): a leek disguised as garlic, growing tips and real benefits
A leek disguised as garlic
With cloves sometimes as big as a whole head of garlic, elephant garlic impresses in the vegetable garden as much as in the kitchen. Yet it is not a garlic. Botanically, it belongs to the species Allium ampeloprasum, the same as the leek and Egyptian kurrat, and not to Allium sativum, common garlic. The University of Tennessee sums it up in one sentence: it is “a type of leek, not a true garlic”.
One species, several vegetables
According to Kew (Plants of the World Online), Allium ampeloprasum L. is native to Macaronesia and the Mediterranean basin through to Central Asia. The leek and kurrat are included in it as mere cultivated forms.
| Cultivated form | What is harvested | Distinctive feature |
|---|---|---|
| Elephant garlic | A large bulb of 3 to 6 enormous cloves | The cultivated form closest to the wild plants |
| Leek | The white shaft formed by the leaf sheaths | No true bulb |
| Kurrat | The leaves, used as a herb | — |
Geneticists have shown that these vegetables are polyploids: their cells contain several sets of chromosomes. Elephant garlic has six or eight, the leek four. All of them count a wild form from North Africa among their ancestors.
The plant
- Bulb: 3 to 6 very large cloves, up to 60 g each. At harvest, it is about twice the size of an ordinary garlic head.
- Small basal cloves: small hard cloves wrapped in a thick brown skin form around the bulb. They are slow to get going.
- “Round”: a small clove that is planted often produces a single-piece bulb, round, without cloves. Replanted, it divides the following year into a few enormous cloves.
- Flower: a stalk about 1.2 m tall bearing a 4 to 12 cm ball of small purple or white flowers, in summer. Elephant garlic generally does not produce viable seed: it is propagated from its cloves.
Growing it in the vegetable garden
| Step | In practice |
|---|---|
| Hardiness | RHS H6: tolerates -15 to -20 °C, no problem in Belgium |
| Position and soil | Full sun; well-drained soil. Avoid heavy clay that stays waterlogged in winter. |
| Planting | In autumn (September to November), tip pointing upwards |
| Depth | Top of the clove about 5 cm below the surface |
| Spacing | 10 to 15 cm in the row, 20 to 30 cm between rows (allow more space for very large bulbs) |
| Growing time | About 8 months (180 to 210 days) |
| Flower stalk | Cut it off as soon as it appears: the energy goes to the bulb (and the stalk is edible) |
| Harvest | In early summer, when the foliage turns pale and starts to dry, with 3 to 5 skins still around the bulb |
| Drying | At least a week in a dry, shaded, airy place |
| Storage | Shorter than for common garlic |
Tip: the small basal cloves, planted separately, first produce “rounds”, then large bulbs the following year. It is a free way to expand your planting.
The flavour: garlic, but (much) milder
Elephant garlic is the least pungent of the “garlics”. Its flavour sits between leek and garlic, thanks to a different mix of sulphur compounds. A 2022 Slovenian study measured about six times less allicin than in common garlic grown in the same place, and a 2020 Italian study found less alliin, the molecule from which it is derived.
In the kitchen, it is roasted whole to make a mild purée, sliced raw into salads, or used as a vegetable.
The “benefits”: what the studies really say
This is where many websites mix everything up. The benefits attributed to elephant garlic are almost always those of common garlic, a different species that is richer in allicin.
For elephant garlic
Only laboratory studies: antibacterial activity and effects on cancer cells in culture, antioxidant activity of extracts. No trials in humans. An effect in a test tube tells us nothing about what happens when you eat the vegetable.
For common garlic (Allium sativum)
| Effect studied | What the reviews show | Type of evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Blood pressure | Average reduction of about 8.7/6.1 mmHg in people with hypertension (20 trials, mostly with supplements such as aged garlic extract) | Meta-analysis of controlled trials |
| Cholesterol | Reduction of about 17 mg/dL in total cholesterol in people above 200 mg/dL, after more than two months | Meta-analysis of controlled trials |
| Heart attack, stroke, mortality | Not enough data (Cochrane, 2 trials) | Cochrane review: insufficient evidence |
| Common cold | Only one valid trial (Cochrane) | Cochrane review: insufficient evidence |
These results mainly concern dosed supplements, not a few cloves in cooking, and cannot be transferred to elephant garlic, which is much poorer in allicin. Eat it for its flavour; that is already very good.
Test yourself
Sources
ASPCA. (n.d.). Garlic. https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/aspca-poison-control/toxic-and-non-toxic-plants/garlic
Bumgarner, N., & Holman, L. (2019). Garlic for the Tennessee vegetable garden (D 75). University of Tennessee Extension. https://uthort.tennessee.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/228/2023/11/D75.pdf
Caputo, L., et al. (2020). Chemical characterization and antibiofilm activities of bulbs and leaves of two aglione (Allium ampeloprasum var. holmense) landraces. Molecules, 25(23), 5486. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25235486
Ceccanti, C., et al. (2020). Comparative phytochemical profile of the elephant garlic and the common garlic. Food Chemistry, 338, 128011. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2020.128011
Coolong, T., Boyhan, G. E., Kelley, W. T., & Granberry, D. M. (2026). Production and management of garlic, elephant garlic, and leek (C 852). University of Georgia Extension. https://fieldreport.caes.uga.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/C852.pdf
Huang, et al. (2013). Antibacterial activity of elephant garlic and its effect against U2OS human osteosarcoma cells. Iranian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences, 16(10). https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3874095/
Jameson, M. (2023, January 27). The joys of growing elephant garlic. UF/IFAS Leon County Extension. https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/leonco/2023/01/27/the-joys-of-growing-elephant-garlic/
Khedim, T., et al. (2020). Tracking the evolutionary history of the Allium ampeloprasum complex. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution, 67(7), 1885–1904. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-020-00948-x
Lissiman, E., Bhasale, A. L., & Cohen, M. (2014). Garlic for the common cold. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, CD006206. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD006206.pub4
Mansour, N. S. (2003). Garlic for the home garden (FS 138). Oregon State University Extension. https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1957/16950/fs138.pdf
Messiaen, C.-M., & Rouamba, A. (2004). Allium ampeloprasum L. PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa). https://uses.plantnet-project.org/en/Alliumampeloprasum(PROTA)
POWO. (n.d.). Allium ampeloprasum L. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:332079-2
RHS. (n.d.). Allium ampeloprasum 'Elephant'. https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/243757/allium-ampeloprasum-elephant/details
Ried, K. (2016). Garlic lowers blood pressure in hypertensive individuals, regulates serum cholesterol, and stimulates immunity. Journal of Nutrition, 146(2), 389S–396S. https://doi.org/10.3945/jn.114.202192
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Sinkovič, L., et al. (2022). Nutraceutical and multi-element profiles of elephant garlic and common garlic from Slovenia. Agroznanje, 23(2), 57–65. https://doi.org/10.7251/AGREN2202057S
Stabler, S. N., Tejani, A. M., Huynh, F., & Fowkes, C. (2012). Garlic for the prevention of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in hypertensive patients. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, CD007653. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD007653.pub2