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I've just added 3 pictures of my Allium Hair that's lost its hair above...
Hope I'm not overloading you with Alliums, but here is one more, a small species with distinctive spots on the flowers:
Re-Allium mairei: My notes tell me that I did sow and plant seedlings of Allium mairei amabile at about the same time but in a different part of the garden, so I guess things have got a bit mixed up. I'll do a check myself with the FOC key tonight. Is amabile a recognised variety/ssp? I see in FOC that amabile is a synonym. Thanks again!
A few more white Alliums in flower at the moment including another mystery plant:1. Allium saxatile album2. Allium saxatile album together with a mystery plant3-4. The mystery plant's inflorescence and a leaf cross-section - flattened and with two channels (difficult to see)5-6. Allium albidum
Göte, your Allium ovalifolium plants look very healthy and happy, growing more robustly than my single bulb, which remains a single bulb after 7 years, and never sets seed . What is the source of your form? The foliage on your plants also looks much more robust than on mine. What sort of soil and light conditions is it growing in? You're right about the "wildlife", my allium garden is quite literally "abuzz" with thousands of bees, wasps, and butterflies.
Reference photos above, at: http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=5766.msg164054#msg164054Three interesting alliums, with a twist to the mystery. Regarding 5-6, that's a nice form of Allium albidum. It appears to be Allium albidum ssp. albidum, with pedicels 2-3x the tepal length. How tall is your plant in flower? I have grown a number of forms in the past, but only currently have A. albidum ssp. caucasicum in a good compact form, which has shorter pedicels for a more compact head, and with supposedly slightly longer tepals than ssp. albidum. I am showing two poor low-resolution images of A. albidum ssp. caucasicum from 2002 (I lost the original hi-res images). Incidentally, Allium albidum, which is close to Allium angulosum, freely hybridizes with Allium senescens, nutans, angulosum, and other rhizomatous alliums, most seedlings growing much taller and not white-flowered!
I have this plant two places in the garden (same source), the one in the picture is about 40 cm and the other about 25 cm (probably due to drier more sunny conditions?). What is the wild range of Allium albidum ssp albidum?Good to know that all these species may hybridize - I have all 4 you mention in the same area!
The mystery to me, seems to be the reverse of how you've stated it. The Allium "saxatile album" in photos 1-2, I don't know what species it is, but I'd say it is not A. saxatile, whereas your mystery white Allium in photos 3-4 (and including 2) are Allium saxatile. A key characteristic of Allium saxatile is the spathe that splits into two persistent "valves" or sections, one of which is much longer than the other and longer than the inflorescence... this can clearly be seen in your plants. Also, the ovary in Allium saxatile is rather prominent and globose, almost as long as the tepals.