Allium unifolium

Allium unifolium, the one-leaf onion or American garlic,^[4] is a North American species of wild onion. It is native to the coastal mountain ranges of California, Oregon, and Baja California.^[1] It grows on clay soils including serpentine, at elevations up to 1100 m.^[5][6]

Allium unifolium
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Monocots
Order:	Asparagales
Family:	Amaryllidaceae
Subfamily:	Allioideae
Genus:	Allium
Subgenus:	A. subg. Amerallium
Species:	A. unifolium
Binomial name
Allium unifolium Kellogg 1863
Synonyms[1][2][3]
Synonymy Allium grandisceptrum Davidson Allium unifolium Vieill. ex Greene 1894, illegitimate homonym not Kellogg 1863 Allium unifolium var. lacteum Greene

Allium unifolium, despite its name, usually has 2–3 flat leaves up to 50 cm long. Bulbs, though, are usually solitary, egg-shaped, up to 2 cm long, often formed at the end of rhizomes spreading out from the parent plant. Scapes are round in cross-section, up to 80 cm tall. Flowers are up to 15 mm across; tepals usually pink but occasionally white; anthers yellow or purple.^[5][7][8][9]

This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.^[10]

References

1. Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
2. Tropicos
3. The Plant List
4. BSBI List 2007 (xls). Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original (xls) on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
5. Flora of North America, v 26 p 258
6. Calflora taxon report 240, Information on California plants for education, research and conservation, with data contributed by public and private institutions and individuals, including the Consortium of California Herbaria. Allium unifolium
7. Hickman, J. C. 1993. The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California 1–1400. University of California Press, Berkeley.
8. Kellogg, Albert. 1863. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 2: 112, f. 35.
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. "RHS Plantfinder – Allium unifolium". Royal Horticultural Society. 2002. Retrieved 5 January 2018.

External links

• United States Department of Agriculture Plants Profile
• Allium unifolium in the CalPhotos photo database, University of California, Berkeley