The Story of Chives

Onion chives are Allium schoenoprasum. Garlic chives are Allium tuberosum: mild garlic-like flavor and white flowers.

How it was found

Kew maps Allium schoenoprasum across the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The native list is broad across temperate Europe, Asia, and North America (including Alaska and many Canadian provinces and northern U.S. states; also Iran, Iraq, Türkiye, Japan, Korea, and much of Siberia). Introduced list includes Argentina South, Azores, Belgium, parts of the Caribbean, Illinois, Ireland, Maryland, Newfoundland, and others. USDA GRIN’s native table is similarly circumpolar-temperate and notes the species is also cultivated. UC Sacramento MG: found across much of Europe, Asia and North America.

UC Marin Master Gardeners write that chives have been used as a medicinal and culinary plant for thousands of years. Kew gives a wild native range across the temperate Northern Hemisphere, and UC pages treat it as a cultivated culinary herb.

How people used it

Kew: used as a poison and a medicine and for food. UC Santa Clara MG: grown for edible leaves and flowers; leaves used to flavor salads, dips, soups, vinegars, egg/cheese dishes, sour cream, and butter; milder than other onion-family members; best used raw. GRIN: food additives — flavoring (leaves as herb, spice). UC Marin MG: add to eggs, baked potatoes, spreads, and salads, or use the purple flowers to infuse vinegar or as an edible garnish.

Kew also lists medicinal use. UCCE Riverside MG: chives, onions, garlic, and leeks are poisonous to dogs and cats at sufficient dose.

Timeline

1. Thousands of years

   Medicinal and culinary — a duration

   UC Marin Master Gardeners write that chives have been used as a medicinal and culinary plant for thousands of years.

   UC Marin Master Gardeners — Underdog herbs for the home cook

2. 1753

   Named in Species Plantarum

   Kew accepts Allium schoenoprasum L., first published in Species Plantarum: 301 (1753). USDA GRIN: Sp. pl. 1:301. 1753.

   Kew POWO; USDA GRIN

3. Temperate Northern Hemisphere

   A bulbous northern herb

   Kew: native range temperate Northern Hemisphere; bulbous geophyte of the temperate biome. UC Sacramento Master Gardeners: chives are a bulb-forming perennial herb found across much of Europe, Asia and North America.

   Kew POWO; UC Master Gardeners of Sacramento County

4. Culinary herb

   Leaves, flowers, mild onion

   UC Santa Clara MG: Allium schoenoprasum, or onion chives; slender leaves from an underground bulb; 1-inch spherical purple flowers. UCCE Riverside MG: onion chives have a mild onion flavor and pink flowers; flowers and foliage are edible.

   UC Santa Clara; UCCE Riverside

Cool to know

Growing notes for this plant live on the Plant Wiki.