Relatives
Allium ramosum L. - Branchy chive (onion), fragrant-flowered garlic.
Taxonomic position.
Family Alliaceae J. Agardh genus Allium L.Synonyms.
Allium odorum L.Morphology and biology.
Perennial bulbous plant. Geophyte. Bulbs are oblong-ovoid or conical, with gingery-fulvous reticular coating; set in groups of 1-3 on a well-developed horizontal root. Stems are 20-50 cm tall, straight, wrapped only at the base in whitish filmy axils. Leaves, 3-7 in number, are clustered at the lower part of the stem. They are narrowly linear, 2-4 mm wide. The umbel is fascicular-hemispheric, with pedicels pointing in a slantwise upward direction. Pedicels are equal in length, 2-3 times longer than the sepals, with bracts at their base. Sepals of a stellate perianth are white, with a greenish vein, lanceolate or elliptic, having acuminate tips. Filaments are 1.5 times shorter than the sepals, coalesced with the perianth for one quarter of its length, solid. The stylus does not protrude from the perianth. Autochore. Blossoms in June, bears fruit in August. Chromosome number: 2n = 32.Distribution.
Siberia (south), Far East (rarely), Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China and Japan.Ecology.
Xerophyte. Photophilous. Occurs in steppes, on dry solonetz meadows and stony or pebbly flanks of steppe hills.Utilization and economic value.
Food (vegetable) and ornamental. A wild relative of cultivated onions, it is promising for breeding practice. Cultivated in the Far East.Reference citations:
Brezhnev, D.D., Korovina, O.N. 1981. Wild relatives of cultivated plants in the flora of the USSR. Leningrad: Kolos, pp.95-96 (in Russian).Vvedensky, A.I. 1935. Onion - Allium L. (Flora of the USSR, vol. IV.) Leningrad: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, p.163-164. (in Russian).
Malyshev L.I., Peshkova G.A., ed. 1987. Flora of Siberia. Araceae - Orchidaceae. V. 4. Novosibirsk: Nauka, pp.83-84 (in Russian).
Frizen, N.V. 1988. Onions plants of Siberia. Novosibirsk: Nauka, p.136 (in Russian).