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Step 1
Look for Allium tricoccum leaves in the spring. When they first emerge they are tightly rolled, but unroll into broad lance shaped leaves, narrow at the bottom and tapering to a point at the top. The leaves grow to about 8 to 12 inches in length and about 3/4 to 2 inches wide. These leaves wilt and dry out by the time the plant flowers. Allium tricoccum is in leaf from about March to June.
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Step 2
Search for allium tricoccum flowers from June to July. The small white flowers grow in a clustered ball at the top of a single, leafless stalk that can grow up to 15 inches tall. The pedicel of each flower is 1 to 2cm long, and the flowers themselves are about 1/4 inch long, narrow at the base with six tepals flaring out at the end in a star shape. This round cluster of flowers can be up to 2 inches across, with about 25 to 50 flowers in each umbel.
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Step 3
Find the seeds about four to six weeks after the flower blooms. They are tiny round black seeds about 2mm in diameter in a cluster at the top of the stalk. Each flower forms a seed as it matures.
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Step 4
Note that Allium tricoccum prefers deciduous woodland areas with well-drained, moist soil. They grow in patches ranging from a few plants to a few hundred. The plants are now protected by legislation in Quebec because of their popularity for use in cooking, which decimated the population. A number of areas in the United States also suffer from over-harvesting, such as parts of North Carolina and Tennessee.
