Allium 2010

[Stephenb]

This one came from Sergey Banketov in the Caucasus as Allium rotundum (wild seed), sowed spring 2007:
 

[Stephenb]

Just a few pictures:

1 Allium validum
2 Allium ochotense (victorialis) with Phormium Bronze
3 Allium aflatunense in the background behind Camassia Cusickii Zwanenburg

[Onion]

Can someone help by the identification of this Allium?
Grows "wild" in a agriculture/horticulture school garden of a university. No label. Flowers now.

[TheOnionMan]

Can someone help by the identification of this Allium?
Grows "wild" in a agriculture/horticulture school garden of a university. No label. Flowers now.

Uli, that's the American Allium stellatum.  There is also a possibility it is an Allium stellatum hybrid, I have many such creatures, but those plants look consistent with plants of Allium stellatum that I grow.

Allium stellatum, a species closely allied to A. cernuum, is highly variable. I have many forms of this plant, collected from a number of spots in midwestern USA to southern Canadian provinces, to a few eastern USA representatives.  There seems to be a couple basic themes; 1) the earlier flowering forms that start blooming in mid July and August, tending to be white and light pink colors, tallish and slender in growth, and more gregarious and growing into modest clumps, and... 2) late blooming forms (Sept-Oct, or even flowering into November), the later ones tending to be dark rich pink, and not gregarious growing, preferring instead to grow as single bulbs or sometimes paired bulbs.  There are both tall and dwarf forms of A. stellatum.

Diagnostic characteristics for A. stellatum (as compared to Allium cernuum):
- very narrow, almost minimal foliage, whereas Allium cernuum typically has much broader more substantial foliage.
- buds that can nod, as in A. cernuum, but typically open into sideways sprays, or in semi-erect umbels (see photo).
- seed pods are typically dark colored, reddish to deep brownish-red in the deep color flower forms.  This is not recorded as a species
  characteristic, but I find it to be a reliable feature.
- flowers later than cernuum; there can be some overlap with late flowering (July) cernuum plants, and early stellatum plants.
- dimorphic flowers, three spreading outer tepals and three erect inner tepals.  Tepals are connivent (folding inwards) making the
   flowers look very star-like.  Note: some A. cernuum forms break form and instead of campanulate bells, exhibits dimophic tepals.
- both A. cernuum and A. stellatum have crested ovaries, most apparent as the seed capsule develops, with 3 horn-like protrusions.

I have found that the earlier flowered forms of A. stellatum will hybridize with other Allium species, probably because they are flowering at the same time, whereas I have not seen evidence of A. stellatum hybrids with the late dark pink forms, probably because much fewer Alliums are in bloom then.

[Onion]

Mark,

great explanation. We discuss wether it is a A. cernuum or not. But it flowers later than A. cernuum does normally.
Thank you.

[Maggi Young]

I see that John Richards has a couple of onions in his most recent Diary.....
http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/diaries/Northumberland/+August+/293/

[TheOnionMan]

I see that John Richards has a couple of onions in his most recent Diary.....
http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/diaries/Northumberland/+August+/293/

Thanks Maggi for bringing this to this thread's attention:

Allow me to comment on those two onions.  John wrote "There are a few corrections to make, I find. For instance, the very reliable but somewhat uncharismatic small onion Bob and Rannveig Wallis passed on to me some summers back (I think it is one of their introductions) came as A. tauricola, although in 2007 I mentioned it incorrectly as A. tauricum. However, according to Brian Mathew and Turhan Baytop's book 'Bulbous plants of Turkey'  A. 'tauricolum' (an incorrect form) is a synonym for A. chlorurum. Either way, it is clearly at the very least closely related to the more familiar A. callimischon (which I featured from Crete last autumn), but flowering in early August, not late October".

Actually, the reverse situation is true.  Allium tauricolum (note: species spelling is disputed between tauricolum and tauricola), has as one of its synonyms, Allium "chlorurum". In Nomenclator Alliorum - Allium names and synonyms - a World Guide, 1998, which includes Brian Mathew as one of the 5 collaborating authors, cite it thusly:  Allium tauricolum Boiss. [-cola], then under A. chlorurum, under "accepted names for synonyms" they write: = tauricolum.

The form in cultivation was, I believe, introduced by the MacPhail & Watson expedition to Turkey in the 1970s, Mac&W 5802.  I bought a seed share and grew this allium, for which I applied an identification of A. tauricola (species spelling as listed in Flora of Turkey), a very easy species to identify as it has lavender flowers uniquely edged in white.

The second photo in the Alpine Gardener's Diary shows a small deep blue Allium that is most likely not A. beesianum as labeled, based upon the apparent small size of the flowers, but is more likely to be A. sikkimense.

[Maggi Young]

Thank you, McMark.
about this :

Either way, it is clearly at the very least closely related to the more familiar A. callimischon

.... can you tell me how close a relationship there might  between the  first of John's onions and A. callimischon?  
I confess to getting my onions well and truly stewed....

[TheOnionMan]

Thank you, McMark.
about this :

Either way, it is clearly at the very least closely related to the more familiar A. callimischon

.... can you tell me how close a relationship there might  between the  first of John's onions and A. callimischon? 
I confess to getting my onions well and truly stewed....

Well, there is a superficial resemblance, but Allium callimischon is in Allium section Brevispatha, and Allium tauricolum is in Allium section Codonoprasum, so they're not really closely related (it's just that these dang little onions all look alike ).  The growth behavior of section Brevispatha is very distinct, with the bud spathe so slender, that it is barely discernible from the flower stem.  It also contains species, like callimischon,  callidictyon, and cupani, that produce leaves and a flower stem with the near invisible bud spathe, the leaves go dormant and dry up, leaving only the little naked spear-like stems, then later in summer, almost like magic, expand to release few-flowered sprays of tiny flowers.  I grew A. cupani ssp. hirtovaginatum from the MacPhail & Watson expedition for almost 30 years before eventually losing it just a few years ago.

With the heat we've been having, I'm surprised I don't have stewed onions myself   91 F (33 C) again today, part of the day spent at my neighbors in-ground pool.

[Maggi Young]

Thanks again.... I had an inkling the two might be more distant than John supposed.

 

While you were having your ten minute  rainstorm the other night, we had almost an hour of thunder and lightning with the heaviest rain I can remember for many years ... it was truly torrential.... I thought of your parched soil at the time (it gave me something to think about as I tried to crawl under the bed to hide)
I'm surprised your neighbour's pool hasn't had all its water evaporate in the heat you've been having.... were you over there to swim and soak or had you a cunning plan to pipe off the water........

[Diane Clement]

...  Allium tauricolum (note: species spelling is disputed between tauricolum and tauricola) ...

... A. tauricola (species spelling as listed in Flora of Turkey) ...

All very interesting, thanks Mark for unravelling this confusion.
Kew goes with Flora of Turkey and has A tauricola as the correct spelling

Allium tauricola

and A chlorurum as a synonym
Allium chlorurum

[Maggi Young]

It seems that tauricola is the correct form.... I was interested to read John Richards' explanation of that....http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/discussion/northumberland/Diary+th+August+/426/

"Thank you Margaret for helping to clarify this one. Regarding as I do Brian Mathew as close to God with respect to anything bulbous, I had assumed he was right in saying that Allium tauricola was correctly known as A. chlorurum, but even Homer nods I guess. If we can stay with the Classics for a second, perhaps I can share the benefit of an expensive and in this case not entirely wasted education by noting that when an epithet is ......-icola (meaning to inhabit), it always takes this form, whatever the ending of the genus, hence Allium tauricola, not A. tauricolum. I think the reason is that the word ....-icola is a noun in apposition, not an adjective, and is first declension feminine for some reason.

As for the little blue onion, several of my books have this plant with pendent larger flowers as the Chinese A. beesianum, the Himalayan A. sikkimense having smaller erect flowers. I myself couldn't possibly comment as I received it as A. caeruleum (which it certainly ain't!)." JR.

[TheOnionMan]

It seems that tauricola is the correct form.... I was interested to read John Richards' explanation of that....http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/discussion/northumberland/Diary+th+August+/426/

"Thank you Margaret for helping to clarify this one. Regarding as I do Brian Mathew as close to God with respect to anything bulbous, I had assumed he was right in saying that Allium tauricola was correctly known as A. chlorurum, but even Homer nods I guess. If we can stay with the Classics for a second, perhaps I can share the benefit of an expensive and in this case not entirely wasted education by noting that when an epithet is ......-icola (meaning to inhabit), it always takes this form, whatever the ending of the genus, hence Allium tauricola, not A. tauricolum. I think the reason is that the word ....-icola is a noun in apposition, not an adjective, and is first declension feminine for some reason.

As for the little blue onion, several of my books have this plant with pendent larger flowers as the Chinese A. beesianum, the Himalayan A. sikkimense having smaller erect flowers. I myself couldn't possibly comment as I received it as A. caeruleum (which it certainly ain't!)." JR.

Thanks Maggi, for the follow-up posting.  Glad that the original name, Allium tauricola, is the correct or preferred spelling (as per Flora of Turkey)... I had not noticed the "alternate" spelling of tauricolum until your posting of John Richards' allium entry, then found both names listed (as if both were accepted), in the recent "Nomenclature Alliorum - Allium names and synonyms - a World Guide", of which Brian Mathew is one of the 5 collaborating authors.

It reminds me of an entry in Brian Mathew's monograph "A Review of Allium Section Allium", under the entry for Allium sphaerocephalon, Brian Mathew writes "The specific epithet is often spelled sphaerocephalum but, as pointed out by Stearn in Ann. Mus. Goulandris 4:181(1978), Linnaeus originally used the ending -on which is an equally correct form of the spelling".  After stating this fact, Mr. Mathew then uses the -on spelling consistently, as it is most often seen.  Regarding A. tauricola, it seems that deference is paid to the fact both spellings are recognized (otherwise it would have not been specially noted as such in Nomenclature Alliorum) although one is preferred over the other.

Regarding Allium beesianum & sikkimense, I'll repeat the only tried and true way to tell the two apart in the Flora of China (FOC) keys, and that is of tepal length.  The disposition of the flowers is not noted in either species, although the drawings of both species in FOC show erect flowers, but it should be noted that the FOC drawings for many genera are "stylized" representations in my opinion).  In my experience, the flowers are typically pendant in both species, although I've grown pendant, semi-erect and erect forms of A. sikkimense, but I only have experience with one form of A. beesianum, which was pendant.  The 4 photos of Allium sikkimense in FOC all show pendant inflorescences...I repeat the links here for expediency.  So, whatever is the actual length of the tepals on John Richards' blue allium, will determine whether it better fits Allium beesianum or Allium sikkimense; the inflorescence disposition is not relevant to the keys.

And then we move on to the fact, there are many plants that are collected in China, that defy the keys and present themselves as taxonomic enigmas, such as the blue allium that Stephen posted, which I shall move on to next.

http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=5766.315

Tepals   6-10 mm........................  Allium sikkimense
Tepals 11-14 (17) mm..................  Allium beesianum

Here are 4 links to Allium sikkimense photos in FOC of plants in the wild, each show pendant flowers.
http://www.efloras.org/object_page.aspx?object_id=87660&flora_id=800
http://www.efloras.org/object_page.aspx?object_id=87661&flora_id=800
http://www.efloras.org/object_page.aspx?object_id=87662&flora_id=800
http://www.efloras.org/object_page.aspx?object_id=87663&flora_id=800

[arisaema]

Mark;

Any idea what this Chinese species might be? It's about 50cm tall, and everything is triangular: leaves, scape, pedicels... Thin and slender bulb like most Chinese species, cannot remember what the tunic looked like unfortunately. Leaves are 1,5cm wide, can get the rest of the measurements if you need them

[TheOnionMan]

Mark;

Any idea what this Chinese species might be? It's about 50cm tall, and everything is triangular: leaves, scape, pedicels... Thin and slender bulb like most Chinese species, cannot remember what the tunic looked like unfortunately. Leaves are 1,5cm wide, can get the rest of the measurements if you need them

This is Allium wallichii var. wallichii.  There are two varieties, var. wallichii and var. platyphyllum; yours is var. wallichii.
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200027548