Relatives
Allium flavescens Bess. - Yellowing onion.
Taxonomic position.
Family Alliaceae J.Agardh, genus Allium L.Synonyms.
Allium angulosum var. flavescens (Bess.) Regel, A. albidum auct. non Fisch. ex Bieb.Morphology and biology.
Perennial. Geophyte. Bulbous. Bulbs conical, 0.5-0.75 cm diameter, covered with blackish, subscarious, longitudinally broken tunics, several arranged on horizontal rhizome. Scape 10-30 cm tall, straight (sometimes flexuous), slender, slightly ribbed. Leaves 6-8, semicylindrical, channelled, filiform, scabrous at margins, slightly shorter than, or as long as, half of scape. Spathe persistent, shortly acuminate, 2 times shorter than umbel. Umbel many-flowered, dense, semispherical, less often subspherical, non-drooping. Pedicels 2-3 times as long as tepals. Tepals yellowish, with poorly distinct vein, oblong-lanceolate or oblong, outer ones carinate, slightly or 1/4 shorter than inner ones. Filaments subequal to or slightly longer than tepals, at the very base fused with each other and with perianth, entire, broadened at the base, inner ones 1.5 times as wide as outer ones. Style exserted from perianth. Autochore. Flowers in June - July, fruits in August. 2n=16.Distribution.
East Europe (forest-steppe and steppe areas), European Russia (forest-steppe and steppe areas), Southern Ural, Kazakhstan (northeast), West Siberia (south; easternmost localities in Uglovskoe district of Altai Territory).Ecology.
Mesoxerophyte. Photophilous. In steppes, on steppified slopes.Use and economic value.
Wild relative of cultivated onions.References:
Friesen NV. 1988. Onion plants of Siberia. Novosibirsk: Nauka. P.117-119. (In Russian).Malyshev LI., Peshkova GA., ed. 1987. Flora of Siberia. V.4. Araceae - Orchidaceae. Novosibirsk: Nauka. (In Russian).
Vvedensky AI. 1935. Onion . Allium L. In: Komarov VL., ed. Flora URSS. V.4. Moscow; Leningrad: AN SSSR. P.165. (In Russian).