Allium cernuum Roth - Nodding Wild Onion

Allium cernuum - (image 1 of 4)

Taxonomy

Family: Liliaceae

Habitat

Prairies, including dolomitic prairies. Sandy habitats near Lake Michigan

Associates

Various

Distribution

Morphology

Bulbs usually clustered on a short rootstock, narrowly ovoid, with a long neck 1 to 2.5 feet high, the coats not fibrous reticulated. Scape slender, slightly ridged 1 to2 ? high. Leaves linear, channeled or nearly bluntish. Umbel many-flowered, nodding in flower, subtended by 2 short-deciduous bracts. Pedicels filiform, 8 to 15 inches long. Flowers campanulate, white or rose. Perianth segments ovate-oblong, acute or obtusish, 2 to 3 inches long. Stamens longer than the perianth. Filaments nearly filiform. Ovules 2 in each cavity or the ovary. Capsule 3-lobed, rather shorter than the perianth, each valve bearing 2 short processes near the summit (Britton 495)

Notes

Flowers late June to early October

Wetland indicator: Facultative wetland-

One of the most attractive members of this genus.

Bibliography

Britton L.N. & A. Brown. 1913. An illustrated flora of the United States, Canada and British Possessions.

Volumes 1. Hafner Press, New York.

Niering, W. A. 1979. The Audubon society field guide to North American wildflowers: eastern region.

Knopf/Random House, New York.

Swink, F. and G. Wilhelm. 1994. Plants of the Chicago Region.
Indiana Academy of Science. The Morton Arboretum. Lisle, Illinois.

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