Allium acuminatum

Allium acuminatum, also known as the tapertip onion or Hooker's onion, a species in the genus Allium and is native to the Western United States and Canada. It has been reported from every state west of the Rocky Mountains, plus British Columbia.[2][3]

Tapertip onion
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Asparagales
Family: Amaryllidaceae
Subfamily: Allioideae
Genus: Allium
Species:
A. acuminatum
Binomial name
Allium acuminatum
Synonyms[1]
  • Allium acuminatum var. cuspidatum Fernald
  • Allium cuspidatum (Fernald) Rydb.
  • Allium elwesii Regel
  • Allium murrayanum Regel
  • Allium wallichianum Regel

Allium acuminatum produces bulbs that are spherical, less than 2 cm across and smelling like onions.[4] Scape is up to 40 cm tall, wearing an umbel of as many as 40 flowers. The flowers are pink to purple with yellow anthers.[2][5][6][7][8][9][10]

The onions were eaten by first peoples in southern British Columbia. They were harvested in either early spring or late fall and usually cooked in pits.[4] Both the bulb and the flowering stalk are edible; however, in the culinary arts, the stalk possesses a more pleasant flavour.[4]

References
  1. Tropicos
  2. Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). "Allium acuminatum". Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). New York and Oxford – via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
  3. "Allium acuminatum". County-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014.
  4. Turner, Nancy J. Food Plants of Interior First Peoples (Victoria: UBC Press, 1997) ISBN 0-7748-0606-0
  5. photo of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, isotype of "Allium acuminatum"
  6. Hooker, William Jackson. 1838. Flora Boreali-Americana 2: 184, pl. 196.
  7. Cronquist, A.J., A. H. Holmgren, N. H. Holmgren & Reveal. 1977. Vascular Plants of the Intermountain West, U.S.A. 6: 1–584. In A.J. Cronquist, A. H. Holmgren, N. H. Holmgren, J. L. Reveal & P. K. Holmgren (eds.) Intermountain Flora. Hafner Pub. Co., New York.
  8. Hickman, J. C. 1993. The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California 1–1400. University of California Press, Berkeley
  9. Hitchcock, C. H., A.J. Cronquist, F. M. Ownbey & J. W. Thompson. 1969. Vascular Cryptogams, Gymnosperms, and Monocotyledons. 1: 1–914. In C. L. Hitchcock, Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press, Seattle.
  10. Scoggan, H. J. 1978 [1979]. Pteridophyta, Gymnospermae, Monocotyledoneae. 2: 93–545. In Flora of Canada. National Museums of Canada, Ottawa.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.