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Wild garlic leaves look very similar to those of some other plants (archive image)
Photo: Julian Stratenschulte / picture alliance / dpa
At this time of year, collecting wild garlic is popular among friends of natural cuisine.
But you have to be careful: the plant is similar to some other plants, some of which are poisonous.
A man from Munich mistook a type of flower for wild garlic and died after eating it.
At the end of April, the 48-year-old had prepared a sauce made of supposed wild garlic that he had collected himself, which made him feel bad, the police said.
The man from the Freising district came to a clinic and has now died there.
A toxicological report should provide information
Instead of edible wild garlic, which is similar to garlic, it was "with high probability" an autumn crocus with poisonous colchicine.
The man only ate a few spoons of the sauce because it seemed bitter to him, said a police spokesman.
"That was enough."
A toxicological report should now provide information about the plant that the man ate.
Autumn crocus bloom in autumn, outwardly resembling crocuses.
When they are not in flower, however, they look deceptively similar to the wild garlic plant.
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The leaves of the autumn crocus differ only in details from those of the wild garlic
Photo: AGAMI / W.
Leurs / imago images / Blickwinkel
There is also a risk of confusion with wild garlic with the highly poisonous lily of the valley, the spotted arum and the real Solomon's seal.
The police warned against eating self-picked plants and warned that you carefully check what it was.
zob / dpa