Relatives
Allium microdictyon Prokh. - Long-root onion, kolba.
Taxonomic position.
Family Alliaceae J.Agardh genus Allium L.Synonyms.
Allium victorialis auct. non L.Morphology and biology.
Perennial geophyte. Bulbous plant. Bulbs are conically cylindrical, 1-1.5 cm in diameter, clothed in grayish, fulvous, fine-meshed, fibrous coat. One or several bulbs are set on a slanting root. The stem is 30-70 cm tall, one third or half of it covered in leaf sheaths. Leaves, usually 2-3 in number, are smooth, flat, lanceolate or oblong-elliptical, with a well-expressed lamina converging into a petiole, 10-20 cm long and 2-8 cm wide, transformed at the base into a 3-7-cm-long leafstalk. The umbel is globular, dense. The spathe is slightly shorter than the umbel, residuary. Pedicels are of equal length, yet are 2-3 times longer than the perianth. Tepals are yellowish white, elliptical, obtuse. Stamina are almost 1.5 times longer than the tepals. The capsule is three-seeded. Seeds are roundish. Autochore. Blossoms in June; bears fruit in July or early August. 2n=16.Distribution.
Urals (rare), Western Siberia (Kuznetsky Ala Tau, Salair Ridge, Altai, Western Sayan, detached regions of the lower Ob basin (Lyapin River and the lower Irtysh) Tobolsk outskirts and the Turtas River), Eastern Siberia (Eastern Sayan, Tuva Mountains, Angara Ridge, Khamar-Daban Range, southwestern spurs of Stanovoy and Yablonovyi Ranges, Selenga river basin in Dauria), Eastern Kazakhstan (western spurs of Southern Altai).Ecology.
Mesophyte. Occurs in damp, dark, coniferous taiga forests, on forest and sub-alpine meadows.Utilization and economic value.
Food (vegetable); source of vitamins. Widely used for food, fresh and salted, as seasoning, as greens and as a prophylactic anti-scorbutic remedy. Contains plenty of ascorbic acid, the amount of which more than doubles when grown as a cultivated crop.References:
Frizen, N.V. 1988. Onions plants of Siberia. Novosibirsk: Nauka, p.90 (in Russian).Malyshev L.I., Peshkova G.A., eds. 1987. Flora of Siberia. Araceae - Orchidaceae. Vol. 4. Novosibirsk: Nauka, p.61 (in Russian).
Schmidt V.M., ed. 1990. Areas of distribution of medicinal plants and their relatives in the USSR (Atlas). 2nd edition (revised). Leningrad: Leningrad University Publishers, pp.21-23. (in Russian).