Help identifying a childhood memory

When I was a child, I remember going with my mother (who is Asian) to a woman's house to pick what I thought were green onions from her lawn. The lady lived across the street from a friend of my mother's and was thrilled when she found out that Koreans made a scallion kimchee with the plant. Well, it's called scallion kimchee, but it's actually made with a flat leaf leek...Chinese I think, but my mother's used regular scallions in a pinch and these apparently were perfect for the job.

The reason I posted on this board is b/c the lady's gratitude stemmed from the fact that her yard was smothered in these things. They had totally overridden her grass...and as a result no one would mow for her (can you imagine chopping through an acre of onions) and her yard looked really scraggly. She tried and tried to get rid of the darn things, but couldn't control them by herself. My mom and aunts made good work of most of them, but even they couldn't prevent them from coming back each year.

Recently I've noticed a small patch popping up in my own yard. It's still just a smallish clump, but it's holding its own against the grass and has even managed to spread a little. It looks like chives but have a small bulb on the end like a green onion (never seen the end of a chive so I don't know if they're the same). I don't know if it flowers or not...I've never seen it do so...but I usually end up hacking away at it with the John Deere before it gets a chance.

Does anyone know what this (and the older plant of memory) could be? Is it invasive? Should I dig the clump out? I'd like to keep it around just for the memories, but if I'm faced with a possible onion-esque lawn, I'm more than willing to eradicate.

Without a photo, it's really difficult but I'll take a stab at this. Look up Allium cepa which is the Egyptian Walking Onion. See if you can find a photo of that and if it matches. If you can't find a good photo, I'll go take a photo for you. Your desription of how your family was using them for cooking is what is making me think along these lines. I don't know if they are documented as being invasive though. I can tell you that my Chinese girlfriend loves them and uses them to cook and that they are pretty darn tasty.

There are a few other possibilities out there but the ones coming to mind for me are North American Natives and although they are nuisances, they aren't invasive.

If you will look at the third page on this forum you will see a thread I started on wild onions. It could be the same thing.

I would post a picture, but we get our lawn mowed twice a month...so all that's there are stubs. I did look at pics of the Walking Onion, but I don't think that's what I remember us picking as a child, and I know it's not what is in my yard. The Walking Onion is much too thick of a plant. These are slender...more like chives. Escamibiaguy, I looked up pics of wild onions and they're dead on. Definitely what is growing up in my lawn and I'm almost positive they're also what had infested that poor woman's lawn.

I don't know how her yard got infested like it did. Maybe in normal circumstances wild onions are not invasive, but boy did they irk her. She couldn't even park her car in her lawn b/c if smooshed, they'd give off a pungent odor. Poor thing...I wonder if she still lives there.

****Revision****

While I still believe the childhood memory plant to be wild onion, I now think the one in my yard is a wild garlic due to the fact that the leaves are hollow and not flat, coming from the bulb.

Wild Onions (Allium canadense) are not invasive here east of the Rockies. You might want to check out Wild Garlic (Allium vineale) because I suspect that is what you have. Wild Garlic is introduced from Europe and it is invasive here by us. Many people confuse which one they have been over taken by because the two are often difficult to distinguish between. But, Wild Garlic has the hollow stems you just described above and Wild Onion doesn't. Wild Onion leaves are flat. Wild Onion might be invasive if it was planted in Korea though.

Wild Garlic is a real son of a gun to get rid of by hand because it produces a lot of underground bulbletts so don't bother trying to pull it up by hand or you'll end up with more than you started with when the growth above ground breaks off in your hand. You can dig up the entire area but be sure you get every last bulblett or it will come back to haunt you. You can use RoundUp but please know you'll probably end up with a brown spot in your lawn as it will kill the grass in the general area too.

The wild onions that I have are only pesky in early spring before the grass starts turning green because they make blotches everywhere. They die off in the summer only to return again next spring.

You have Wild Onions. I don't think she does because of what she is describing. What you mentioned about how your plants die off is exactly one of the reasons why they aren't invasive. Other plants can easily grow right up through them and carry on throughout the remaining growing seasons or co-exist quite nicely by occupying the same space. Additionally, Wild Onions aren't allelopathic or disruptive to ecosystems which isn't the case with Wild Garlic.

I just make sure to bring some tissue when I cut grass to wipe the tears LOL

Really? You need to carry tissue with you?

No, that was a little joke. They have watered so badly before that I have had to wipe them on the sleeve of my shirt.

I've been hit by allergies out working and have had to use my shirt too but I normally bring a roll of toilet paper out there with me to have my own kleenex on a tube.

We have both wild garlic and onion. I have dug one flower bed faithfully for over 10 years and am finally feeling as tho the battle is nearly won. But only in that flower bed. I'm still fighting it in other areas. We will never be rid of it completely because it grows wild in the ditches, some farmers don't control it on their land, etc.

With all the weeds and garlic we used to have, when we cut the grass it smelled like a pizza parlor!