NODDING ONION

NODDING ONION

Onion Family, Alliaceae (formerly in the Liliaceae)

Perennial herb

Easy to find, even when not in bloom. Step on the 4–10 inch long grass-like leaf blades and smell the onion aroma. Note the nodding cluster (umbel) of urn-shaped, pink to white flowers with extended stamens. Wild onions grow from eatable, oblong bulbs, which in this species are not covered with a network of coarse fibers. Blooms in spring.

FLOWERS: June-October. Nodding, umbrella-shaped cluster of 8–35 small flowers on a leafless stem 4–20 inches tall (10–50 cm); 6 petals (tepals), tips rounded and erect (not spreading), stamens extend beyond petal tips; no bulbils (little bulbs) form to replace flowers.

LEAVES: Basal, 3–5 from each bulb; bulb oval 3/8–1 1/8 inches long (1–3 cm). Blades 4–10 inches long (10–25 cm), solid (not hollow), grass-like, flat to V-shaped; shorter than flowering stem.

HABITAT: Gravel loam, igneous, limestone soils, moist areas, open areas; piñon-juniper woodlands, ponderosa pine, spruce-fir forests, mountain meadows.

ELEVATION: 5,900–10,100 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, MT, NM, OR, SD, TX, UT, WY; eastern U.S.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Geyer’s Onion, A. geyeri, grows in the same range but has an upright cluster of pinkish-white flowers and petals with pointed, erect tips. Onions sometimes are placed in the Amaryllis family, Amaryllidaceae.

NM COUNTIES: Statewide except SE plains counties in mid- to high-elevation moist habitats.