Allium canadense L.

Description

"Plant with odor of onion. Bulb not divided into flat-sided segments; coat fibrous. Stems 1.5-5.5 dm tall. Leaves lustrous green, flat, the free portion 1-3 dm long, 2-6 mm wide, the sheathing portion 3-10 cm long, hence mostly low on the scape. Spathe 1.5-3 cm long, splitting into several segments, beak equaling or shorther than the body. Umbel usually a mixture of bulbils and flowers or completely on or the other, when bulbils are present the stem often proliferaties into several branches from the umbel, each with a small umbel; pedicels 1.2-3.5 cm long. Perianth rotate to broadly campanulate, segments pink to white, 5-7 mm long. Stamens and pistils shorter than the perianth lobes. Capsule smooth on top, 2-3 mm long, shorter than broad. Seeds triangular, black, finely reticulate with a papilla in the middle of each space, 1.5-2.5 mm long, about as long as broad. Mid April-May; late May-June." (Radford)

This species was first described and named by Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), probably in his work Species Plantarum.

Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas by Radford, Ahles, and Bell includes this species in their key. (Radford)

(photo used by permission of UGA Herbarium, Athens, GA)

Higher Taxa

• Class
• Monocotyledonae (Liliopsida)
  • Sub-Class
  • Liliidae
    • Order
    • Liliales
      • Family
      • Liliaceae
        • Genus
        • Allium

Geography

Natural History

How To Encounter

References

1. Eaton, Amos and John Wright. 1840. North American Botany; Comprising the Native and Common Cultivated Plants, North of Mexico: Genera Arranged According to the Artificial and Natural Methods. Elias Gates. Troy, NY.

2. Jones, Samuel B. and Nancy C. Coile. Checklist of the Vascular Flora of Clarke County, GA. University of Georgia Department of Botany.

3. Mabberley, D. J. 1997. The Plant-Book. Cambridge University Press. Great Britian. ISBN: 0-521-47421-0.

4. Mellinger, Marie B. 1984. Atlas of the Vascular Flora of Georgia. Studio Designs Printing. Milledgeville, GA.

5. Morris, Rich. Sept. 14, 1995. "Plants For A Future" Allium Species. http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/onions.html.

6. Munro, Derek. Feb. 2, 1996. "Allium canadense poisoning." http://res.agr.ca/.

7. Radford, A. E., H. E. Ahles & C. R. Bell. 1968. Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas. University of North Carolina Press. Chapel Hill, NC.

8. Rickett, Harold William. 1967. Wild Flowers of The United States: vol. Two The Southeastern States. The New York Botanical Garden. McGraw-Hill Book Company. NY.

9. Shetler, Stanwyn G. and Laurence E. Skog. 1978. A Provisional Checklist of Species for Flora North America. Missouri Botanical Garden.

10. Wofford, B. Eugene. 1989. Guide to the Vascular Plants of the Blue Ridge. The University of Georgia Press. Athens, GA. ISBN: 0-8203-1049-2.