Allium stellatum, commonly known as the autumn onion, prairie onion,[1]cliff onion,[2] or glade onion,[3] is a North American species of wild onion in the Amaryllidaceae family that is native to central Canada and the central United States.
Description
Allium stellatum is a perennial forming a bulb underground. An erect, leafless scape up to 30–60 centimetres (1–2 ft) tall arises from grass-like basal leaves that are up to 30 centimetres (1 ft) long. [4][5] The leaves die back as the rounded umbel of pink to purple flowers[4] forms at the end of the scape in the summer. The umbel is approximately 5–8 centimetres (2–3 in) across, and each of the tiny flowers is slightly longer than 0.6 centimetres (.25 in), with 3 petals and 3 sepals that flare outward.[5] The bulbs are strongly flavored but edible.[4]
Etymology
The genus name Allium is from the classical Latin name for garlic. The species name stellatum is botanical Latin for "starry", and refers to the umbels. This species was described for science by John Bellenden Ker Gawler in 1813.[6][7]
^Kantrud, Harold A. (1995). "Pink Wild Onion (Allium stellatum)". Native Wildflowers of the North Dakota Grasslands. Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center. Archived from the original on 2014-08-13. Retrieved 2010-03-24.
^Nuttall, Thomas, ex Ker Gawler, John Bellenden. 1813 Botanical Register 38: plate 1576
^"Allium stellatum". County-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014.
^"Allium stellatum". Robert W. Freckmann Herbarium University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point. Archived from the original on 2011-09-28. Retrieved 2010-03-24.
^Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. 3 vols. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Vol. 1: 498