Allium acuminatum

tapertip onion
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Asparagales
Family: Amaryllidaceae
Subfamily: Allioideae
Tribe: Allieae
Genus: Allium
Species: A. acuminatum
Binomial name
Allium acuminatum
Hook.
Synonyms[1]
  • Allium acuminatum var. cuspidatum Fernald
  • Allium cuspidatum (Fernald) Rydb.
  • Allium elwesii Regel
  • Allium murrayanum Regel
  • Allium wallichianum Regel

Allium acuminatum, also known as the tapertip onion or Hooker's onion, a species in the genus Allium and is native to the Western United States and Canada. It has been reported from every state west of the Rocky Mountains, plus British Columbia.[2][3]

Allium acuminatum produces bulbs that are spherical, less than 2 cm across and smelling like onions.[4] Scape is up to 40 cm tall, wearing an umbel of as many as 40 flowers. The flowers are pink to purple with yellow anthers.[2][5][6][7][8][9][10]

The onions were eaten by first peoples in southern British Columbia. They were harvested in either early spring or late fall and usually cooked in pits.[4] Both the bulb and the flowering stalk are edible; however, in the culinary arts, the stalk possesses a more pleasant flavour.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Tropicos
  2. 1 2 "Allium acuminatum". Flora of North America (FNA). Missouri Botanical Garden – via eFloras.org.
  3. ↑ "Allium acuminatum". County-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2013.
  4. 1 2 3 Turner, Nancy J. Food Plants of Interior First Peoples (Victoria: UBC Press, 1997) ISBN 0-7748-0606-0
  5. ↑ photo of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, isotype of "Allium acuminatum"
  6. ↑ Hooker, William Jackson. 1838. Flora Boreali-Americana 2: 184, pl. 196.
  7. ↑ Cronquist, A.J., A. H. Holmgren, N. H. Holmgren & Reveal. 1977. Vascular Plants of the Intermountain West, U.S.A. 6: 1–584. In A.J. Cronquist, A. H. Holmgren, N. H. Holmgren, J. L. Reveal & P. K. Holmgren (eds.) Intermountain Flora. Hafner Pub. Co., New York.
  8. ↑ Hickman, J. C. 1993. The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California 1–1400. University of California Press, Berkeley
  9. ↑ Hitchcock, C. H., A.J. Cronquist, F. M. Ownbey & J. W. Thompson. 1969. Vascular Cryptogams, Gymnosperms, and Monocotyledons. 1: 1–914. In C. L. Hitchcock, Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press, Seattle.
  10. ↑ Scoggan, H. J. 1978 [1979]. Pteridophyta, Gymnospermae, Monocotyledoneae. 2: 93–545. In Flora of Canada. National Museums of Canada, Ottawa.

External links

Media related to Allium acuminatum at Wikimedia Commons


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