Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) • Earth.com

Three-cornered leek

(Allium angulosum)

galery
en

Description

Allium triquetrum is a bulbous flowering plant in the genus Allium (onions and garlic) native to the Mediterranean basin. It is known in English as three-cornered leek, and in Australia and New Zealand as onion weed. Both the English name and the specific epithet triquetrum refer to the three-cornered shape of the flower stalks. Allium triquetrum is native to south-western Europe, north-western Africa, Madeira and the Canary Islands, where it grows in meadows, woodland clearings, on river banks and roadside verges from sea level to an elevation of 850 metres (2,790 ft). It has also been introduced to the British Isles, New Zealand, Turkey, Australia, California, Oregon, and South America, and is a declared noxious weed in some of those places. Recorded as an alien at a garden waste site on Howth Head, Ireland. Allium triquetrum produces stems 17–60 cm (6+3⁄4–23+1⁄2 in) tall, which are concavely triangular in cross-section. Each stem produces an umbel inflorescence of 4–19 flowers in January–May in the species' native environment. The tepals are 10–18 mm (13⁄32–23⁄32 in) long and white, but with a "strong green line". Each plant has two or three narrow, linear leaves, each up to 15 cm (6 in) long.The leaves have a distinct onion smell when crushed. 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.

Taxonomic tree:

Domain:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta
Class: Liliopsida
Order:Asparagales
Family:Amaryllidaceae
Genus:Allium
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