Allium 2010

[TheOnionMan]

Previously I posted information from Dr. Eric Block, Professor of Chemistry, University at Albany, SUNY, and his recent book "Garlic and Other Alliums - The Lore and The Science" published by the Royal Society of Chemistry. 
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=5766.msg145659#msg145659

I recently heard from Dr, Block and received updated information about the book and various speaking engagements and radio/tv interviews, so I'm posting that information here.

The hardcover version of the book has sold out.  However a paperback (softback) version is now available ($39.95 in the U.S., 25 GBP in the UK).
hardcover - http://www.rsc.org/shop/books/2009/9780854041909.asp
paperback - http://www.rsc.org/shop/books/2010/9781849731805.asp
Dr. Block  gave a free lecture on Allium science at the New York Botanical Gardens on Friday, July 2, at 11 AM.  This venue has already happened, but for a 23-minute audio podcast of NPR's Science Friday, click this link:
http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/510221/128276253/npr_128276253.mp3?_kip_ipx=1042707938-1278114581

For those in England, Dr. Block will be giving an illustrated public lecture at the Chemistry Centre of the Royal Society of Chemistry in London on July 15 at 18:30. While the talk is free, advance registration is required since space is limited. At this event, Dr. Block will also be signing copies of his book.  For more information or to register, click here:
http://www.rsc.org/AboutUs/ChemistryCentre/Events/saladbowl.asp?CFID=4467093&CFTOKEN=97899321

Also, for those in Scotland, Dr. Block has been assisting BBC-TV on a feature they are producing on onions for a program called 'Jimmy's Food Factory 2', BBC Scotland. He does not know when it will air, but believes it should be of interest to Scottish Allium-lovers.

Other news of interest to those in the UK and the EU
A new environmentally-benign garlic-based pesticide has just this week been fully approved by the UK regulators for horticultural use, such as with root crops like carrots and parsnips, as well as on turf grass in golf courses and soccer fields, etc. EU approval has also recently been received.
 
The product is now commercially available from a small UK company (full disclosure: Dr. Block is a scientific consultant for them) called ECOspray. The ECOspray website is currently being updated with the new information and it may be a week or more before it is up to date. Here is the link: http://www.ecospray.com/index.php

More information on Dr. Eric Block
e-mail: eb801@albany.edu
http://www.albany.edu/chemistry/eblock.shtml

[Stephenb]

Had a listen to the podcast the other day - very interesting! Thanks for posting this, Mark.

Thanks also for the further details on tuberosum/ramosum - will be having a proper look as soon as I get some time.

I mentioned a dwarf cernuum the other day. I received it as SRGC seed 140 in January 2009. It's just in flower and it doesn't look like cernuum unfortunately. I also sowed A. wallichii the same day (SRGC seed 197) and this also seems to be the same plant and I can't see how I could have mixed the two up, but it's not impossible. I thought initially it was Allium cyathophorum farreri (a well-known impostor I believe) but comparing with my old farreri I see it's different. I'll take a picture when the flowers are out properly.

[TheOnionMan]

Alliums in the "Weekly Lisse Flowershow 2010" thread:
(note: can also scroll up from the link starting point, for a few more Allium pics)
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=4969.msg159029#msg159029

McMark response:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=4969.msg159347#msg159347

[bulborum]

I got from a friend some tiny alliums
they look a little bit like Allium olympicum
can anybody confirm this
so I can put a label on

Roland

Thanks Mark The first 2 pots are not olympicum
the third pot probably Allium kurtzianum

[bulborum]

Another one I collected by accident at Sicily
a pretty small one just now in flower
it was in between small Ornithogalum
No idea what it is but I hope it makes seeds

Roland

[TheOnionMan]

Another one I collected by accident at Sicily
a pretty small one just now in flower
it was in between small Ornithogalum
No idea what it is but I hope it makes seeds

Roland

Roland, that's a nice onion.  Knowing where it is from is very important, as without that knowledge, one would need to consider a couple dozen very similar looking Allium species in Section Codonoprasum.  Since it is from Sicily, I believe the plant is A. paniculatum or A. pallens, closely related species, both found in Sicily. 

Before anyone disagrees with the Allium pallens possibility, let me explain:  Allium pallens is widespread throughout Southern Europe, and growers will be much more familiar with its typical form that has blunt, nearly truncate ends to the tepals, giving it a most distinctive look... it looks very similar to A. paniculatum, but with a more dense head of bloom and those curious cut-off-ended petals, I've grown a number of forms of this in the past.  However, there are two subspecies of A. pallens that have rounded to acute ends to the tepals, one of these subspecies is Allium pallens ssp. siciliense.  Allium pallens has an ovary that is 2-3x longer than wide, nearly as long as the tepals, except in ssp. siciliense the ovary is much shorter than the tepals.  Roland, can you give up 1 florets to remove a couple tepals, to show the ovary?

So, three possibilities... A. paniculatum, A. pallens, A. pallens ssp. siciliense.

[TheOnionMan]

I got from a friend some tiny alliums
they look a little bit like Allium olympicum
can anybody confirm this
so I can put a label on

Roland

Roland, I see two different Allium species shown in those three photos.  Do you have any information about where these Alliums come from, or are native to?

The last photo looks like what goes around as Allium "olympicum", but is in reality A. kurtzianum.  Originally from an ACW collection in Turkey, the species was misidentified as A. olympicum, a valid species, but the plant was actually A. kurtzianum.

The first two photos show the something that looks like the enigmatic rose-lilac Turkish Alliums I discussed at length much earlier in this thread, see:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=4757.msg138177#msg138177
I'm still not sure what they are.  To some extent, they look like small, floriferous forms of A. carinatum ssp. pulchellum, but according to the author on the Allium section in Flora of Turkey, collections made in Turkey said to be that species, he feels belong to one of the other rather similar closely related species instead.

[bulborum]

Hello Mark

You really know how to get somebody mad
peeling of a 3 mm small part from a flower you don't want to harm
and later after a second nervous breakdown he wants Pictures
from a 1 mm small part in a windy tunnel
I did not make 100 pictures but it was not much less
but finally see pictures

Roland

[bulborum]

Hello Mark

For the Allium olympicum I got them from Koos
he is sometime here on the forum
He has a alpine nursery
I will ask him where he got it
The pot is replanted in the garden
it should be the same

Roland

[TheOnionMan]

Hello Mark

You really know how to get somebody mad peeling of a 3 mm small part from a flower you don't want to harm and later after a second nervous breakdown he wants Pictures from a 1 mm small part in a windy tunnel I did not make 100 pictures but it was not much less
but finally see pictures

Roland

Roland, thanks for showing up the detailed photos, they should make everyone happy, yourself to find and ID on the plant, and to forumists who get to see the details first hand. The ovary is small, about as tall as wide, so that rules out A. paniculatum (which has an ovary about 2x tall as wide) and pallens ssp. pallens (also with a taller-than-wide ovary), but with such a short rotund ovary it must be A. pallens ssp. siciliense.  Your are lucky to have such a rarely seen Mediterranean allium show up by mistake in your Onithogalum collection, congratulations.

[TheOnionMan]

Hello Mark

For the Allium olympicum I got them from Koos
he is sometime here on the forum
He has a alpine nursery
I will ask him where he got it
The pot is replanted in the garden
it should be the same

Roland

Roland, do you agree that the first two photos (in your 3-photo posting) show a particular allium, and the 3rd photo shows a *different* allium.  I see two different allium species among those 3 photos, do you agree? I can't quite tell what you're saying, but you seem to be saying all three allium photos (2 in a pot, 1 outside) are all the same species.  Can you clarify?

It is the last one that I immediately recognize as A. kurtzianum (syn. A. olympicum of Hort).  The first two represent a different species.

[bulborum]

My memory is to mall
but I thought I replanted the ones in the pot
near the little rose but not true
this is nr 06-303 from Koos
the one in the pot 06-246 From Dix export
so 2 different suppliers and 2 different plants
Mistake from my memory

Roland

[TheOnionMan]

After a month of blooming, the season of Allium cernuum continues, with ever more forms and colors.  We also start seeing how the flower heads go over, in some forms always maintaining the nodding form of the individual florets, while in others turning skyward and elongating straight up.

1-2  some plants with well-formed flower heads, lots of them

3     beautiful pearl pink-white form

4     mixed small flower-head types, I've been selecting for these cuties

5-6  robust deep rose forms senescing gracefully and in place

7     nice palest pink near-white one with charcoal pedicels and pedicel ends

8     three senescent heads turning straight up and turning deep rose, 2 fresh rose heads

9-10 more good flowered forms

[TheOnionMan]

One thing I have been selected for, is good clumping forms of Allium cernuum.  Some are happy to just sit there and almost never divide, while others make large congested clumps with many dozens of flower stems.  The season of Allium cernuum is about midway through, some going over, some just starting.

11     a particularly good clumping form that makes a bold statement in the garden.

12     forms with red pedicels are relatively rare, this is a good one

13-17 A. cernuum 'Wall of Pink' - a tentative nickname for a wonderful robust form that appeared in my garden, growing to 2' (60 cm), with large and beautiful sculpted heads, each mid pink floret held by an thick, arching, charcoal pedicel... the pedicels aging to a darker charcoal color.  To be introduced.

18     A few-flowered particularly large effuse headed form, going over to seed

19     A. cernuum 'Tidy Pink' - another nickname for a small cluster-headed form, the flower heads 1/2 to 1/3rd the normal size, but cute and well formed.  Lighter this year due to the incessant high heat.

20     a nice form shown earlier when opening palest pink, finishing as white in the heat

[TheOnionMan]

The season continues.  Normally the plants shown here would be blooming in August, but with this year's early season by 2-3 weeks, it is a July showing.  With enough Allium cernuum forms, one can have a full 2-1/2 months (10 weeks) of flowering, with a small overlap with the successor and close ally of the day, Allium stellatum, continuing the show until autumn.

21    Allium cernuum breaking into bud offers some most intriguing geometry, this one from June

22    and the buds just keep on coming!

23-24 a late compact white-flowering form

25    in the high heat in the 90s F (32-34 C) more of the white and pastel color forms seem to come out, indifferent to the heat, in this view, a light pink form

26    a small and delicate pale pink form visited by a bumblebee

27    A. cernuum x rubens, a strange small-flowered hybrid between nodding onion and the Asian A. rubens.  The florets barely open, staying as tiny orbs with stamens just poking through.

28-29 A. 'Rosey Affair' - hybrid between our native Allium stellatum x Asian species A. senescens.  It is a wonderful plant that was selected from a number of such crosses over the last decade... it is named Allium 'Rosey Affair' (the name Rosey is spelled as intended).  The flower color deepens to a rich pink as they open and age.  A second photo shows 2-year old seedlings from it, they closely resemble the parent in habit but vary in flower color.  Normally this is an August bloomer, but as I've been harping on, the season is 2-3 weeks earlier than normal this year.

30    and the buds just keep on coming, in this view, late forms of Allium cernuum and some of the earlier A. stellatum, all with nodding and bendy-curvy flower stems.