Tapertip onion

Description

Allium acuminatum, also known as the tapertip onion or Hooker's onion, is a species in the genus Allium native to North America. It is found the Western United States and Canada. It has been reported from every state west of the Rocky Mountains, plus British Columbia. Allium acuminatum produces bulbs that are spherical, less than 2 cm across and smelling like onions. 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. The plant also produces two or three grooved leaves which tend to wither prior to bloom. Its native habitats include open, rocky slopes, among brush and pines. 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. Both the bulb and the flowering stalk are edible; however, in the culinary arts, the stalk possesses a more pleasant flavour. Allium is a genus of monocotyledonous flowering plants that includes hundreds of species, including the cultivated onion, garlic, scallion, shallot, leek, and chives. The generic name Allium is the Latin word for garlic, and the type species for the genus is Allium sativum which means "cultivated garlic". Carl Linnaeus first described the genus Allium in 1753. Some sources refer to Greek ἀλέω (aleo, to avoid) by reason of the smell of garlic. Various Allium have been cultivated from the earliest times, and about a dozen species are economically important as crops, or garden vegetables, and an increasing number of species are important as ornamental plants. The decision to include a species in the genus Allium is taxonomically difficult, and species boundaries are unclear. Estimates of the number of species are as low as 260, and as high as 979. Allium species occur in temperate climates of the Northern Hemisphere, except for a few species occurring in Chile (such as A. juncifolium), Brazil (A. sellovianum), and tropical Africa (A. spathaceum). They vary in height between 5 cm and 150 cm. The flowers form an umbel at the top of a leafless stalk. The bulbs vary in size between species, from small (around 2-3 mm in diameter) to rather large (8-10 cm). Some species (such as Welsh onion A. fistulosum and leeks (A. ampeloprasum)) develop thickened leaf-bases rather than forming bulbs as such.