looduskalender.ee

Chives

 

 

In nature chives grow in juniper shrubs, seashore meadows and alvars, in North and West Estonia. The areas where chives grow have spread by plants thrown out from home gardens and naturalised.

 

Chives grow to a height of up to 30 centimetres; the diameter of the onion-tasting and tubular leavers stays at a couple of millimetres. The dense spherical inflorescences have started flowering; their colour varies from pink towards darker colours, and they still flower in July. The fruit is a capsule, where the seeds are hidden, quite small, with an oblong shape and distinct edges.

 

In summer the pleasantly-tasting leaves of chives tend to become less refined in taste, but make use of the plant more often: picking the stalks of chives stimulates growth and development of new leaves – young leaves are much more succulent.