The common leek is a herbaceous biennial, mostly cultivated as a vegetable for it's edible leaves and roots.It's long leaves are opposite, flat and more or less large — they vary in colour from dark green to yellowish green. The base of the leaves form a pseudo-stalk, and the buried, white portion of the leek is most appreciated for it's culinary uses. The greenish-white flowers appear in umbel groups atop the straight, floral stems, but only after a full year of growth! There are close to 190 varieties in the European Catalogue of species and varieties.
