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The difference is very simple. Babington leaves when crushed have a faint garlic smell and taste, leek does not. Goes away with cooking. I have not come across PP and I am not sure what these bulbil bearing poireau perpetuels are. As they could be crossed with ordinary leeks (as we have seen with the seeds of the grex from the Czech seed company bred by Telsing Andrews which you pointed out to us Triffid) I guess they must be in the leek family. I wonder what their leaves smell and taste like.
My dividing leek divides and makes flowers and seeds, but no bulbils. And definitely no garlicky smell. It is akin to a larger version of Minogue rather than a form of Babington. (Having said this I am aware that I have this oddity in the garden, the Minogue with top bulbils). Leeks can be forced to produce top bulbils. So bulbils are a feature of the leek types as well as the garlicky types it seems but much rarer. But I have not seen them (yet) on my dividing leek.
If poireau perpetuel with top bulbils (Babington has top bulbils of course) has the faint garlic smell, it would make it a member of the garlic family rather the leek family, like a variant of elephant garlic. Babington and elephant garlic are supposedly related, one a cultivated form that has stopped producing the top bulbils but grows a larger bulb, the other a wild form with a smaller bulb that still can.
When I talk about garlic vs leek family by garlicky flavour vs lack of garlicky flavour, this is my attempt to make sense of the various alliums. Not anything scientific, just what I experience on the ground.
My dividing leek divides and makes flowers and seeds, but no bulbils. And definitely no garlicky smell. It is akin to a larger version of Minogue rather than a form of Babington. (Having said this I am aware that I have this oddity in the garden, the Minogue with top bulbils). Leeks can be forced to produce top bulbils. So bulbils are a feature of the leek types as well as the garlicky types it seems but much rarer. But I have not seen them (yet) on my dividing leek.
If poireau perpetuel with top bulbils (Babington has top bulbils of course) has the faint garlic smell, it would make it a member of the garlic family rather the leek family, like a variant of elephant garlic. Babington and elephant garlic are supposedly related, one a cultivated form that has stopped producing the top bulbils but grows a larger bulb, the other a wild form with a smaller bulb that still can.
When I talk about garlic vs leek family by garlicky flavour vs lack of garlicky flavour, this is my attempt to make sense of the various alliums. Not anything scientific, just what I experience on the ground.
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