Allium crenulatum |
Allium bisceptrum |
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Olympic onion, scalloped onion |
twincrest onion |
|
Bulbs | 1–6+, replaced annually with new bulbs borne terminally on short; secondary rhizomes, parent bulb disappearing by anthesis except for still-functional roots and shriveled bulb coat, oblique-ovoid; outer coats not or only partially enclosing bulbs, membranous, lacking cellular reticulation or cells arranged in only 2–3 rows adjacent to roots; more or less quadrate; without fibers. |
1–7+, commonly producing either a cluster of stalked; basal bulbils or filiform rhizomes to 10 cm, terminated by bulbils; rhizomes usually lost when specimens are collected; ovoid; outer coats enclosing 1 or more bulbs, membranous, obscurely cellular-reticulate; cells rectangular; walls minutely sinuous; vertical, varying to irregular; all sinuous; without fibers. |
Leaves | usually deciduous with scape, withering from tip at anthesis; (1)2; blades solid; flat, falcate, 10–33 cm × 1.5–10 mm. |
persistent, green at anthesis, 2–5; blades solid; flat, broadly channeled, 8–30 cm × 1–13 mm. |
Scapes | usually forming abscission layer and deciduous with leaves after seeds mature; solitary; more or less erect; solid, flattened, winged distally; wings frequently crenulate proximal to umbel, 5–15 cm × 1–5 mm. |
persistent; solitary or clustered, 1–3; erect; solid; terete, 10–30(40) cm × 1–5 mm. |
Umbels | persistent; erect; compact, 10–25-flowered, conic to hemispheric; pedicels 6–16 mm; spathe bracts 2. |
persistent; erect; loose, 15–40-flowered, globose; pedicels 10–20 mm, often becoming flexuous and deflexed in fruit; spathe bracts 2. |
Flowers | 6–12 mm; tepals erect, lanceolate; more or less equal, white to pinkish with deeper pink, purple or greenish midveins; margins entire; apex acute; stamens included; ovary obscurely crested with 3 minute, 2-lobed processes; stigma scarcely thickened, unlobed. |
7–10 mm; tepals spreading, lanceolate; more or less equal; lilac to white, becoming papery in fruit, not keeled; margins entire; apex acuminate, not involute; stamens included; ovary conspicuously crested with 6 triangular processes; stigma unlobed. |
2n | =14. |
=14, 28. |
Allium crenulatum |
Allium bisceptrum |
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Distribution | ||
Discussion | Talus slopes and clay soils, including serpentine, on bald summits and ridges. Flowering May–Jul. 0–1400 m. BW, Casc, CR, ECas, Est, WV. WA; north to British Columbia. Native. Oregon’s Allium crenulatum populations differ morphologically and are quite variable. It is tempting to name some of them, but so far botanists have been unable to find consistent, clear patterns, so all are treated as a single highly variable species. |
Meadows and aspen groves, less commonly on open slopes in mountains, grasslands with juniper, pumice barrens. Flowering Jun–Jul. 1400–2000 m. BW, ECas, Owy. CA, ID, NV; southeast to NM. Native. |
Source | Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 138 Nick Otting, Richard Brainerd, Barbara Wilson |
Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 136 Nick Otting, Richard Brainerd, Barbara Wilson |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Allium cascadense, Allium watsonii | Allium bisceptrum var. bisceptrum |
Web links |