keys to the vascular plants of east texas - Botanical Research ...

436 ALLIACEAE/ALLIUM
scent; perianth segments 4–7 mm long, white (rarely pink). Rocky, often calcareous soils, woods
or open areas; Post Oak Savannah w to Rolling Plains and Edwards Plateau; KS, NE, OK, SD, and
TX. Apr–May. [A. fraseri (Ownbey) Shinners] The typically white flowers are important in recognizing
this variety. Intergradation with var. mobilense is known where the two varieties overlap
(Ownbey & Aase 1955).
var. hyacinthoides (Bush) Ownbey & Aase, (hyacinth-like), FRAGRANT WILD ONION. Leaf blades
0.5–7 mm wide; flowering stem 15–30(–40) cm tall; umbel many-flowered; flowers fragrant
with sweet hyacinth scent; perianth segments 5–7 mm long, pink, thin. Calcareous prairies or
infrequently in sandy soils, in sun or shade; Blackland Prairie w to edge of Rolling Plains,
mostly to the w of var. mobilense; endemic to TX and s OK. Late Mar–Apr. [A. hyacinthoides
Bush] Turner et al. (2003) treated this taxon as a distinct species, while McNeal et al. (2002) considered
it a variety of A. canadense.
var. mobilense (Regel) Ownbey, (of Mobile, Alabama), MOBILE ONION, PINK WILD ONION. Flowering
stem 10–30(–50) cm tall; bulb at base of plant sometimes with 1 or 2 bulblets (not present in
other vars.); leaf blades 0.3–2 mm wide; perianth segments 4–6(–7) mm long, pink (rarely
white). Sandy or rocky soils, rarely on limestone or clay, woods and prairies; Pineywoods and n
Gulf Prairies and Marshes w to East Cross Timbers and e Edwards Plateau; e U.S. from SC s to
FL w to OK and TX. Apr–mid-May. [A. mobilense Regel] Turner et al. (2003) apparently considered
this the sexual form of var. canadense. m/274
Allium cepa L., (Latin for onion), ONION, COMMON ONION. Bulb sometimes quite large; leaves cylindrical
with groove on inner surface; flowering stem to ca. 1+ m tall, inflated below middle;
umbel 4–9 cm in diam.; pedicels often many times longer than flowers; flowers sometimes very
many; perianth segments 3–4.5(–7) mm long, green to white(–pink), with greenish midveins ;
sessile bulbils occasionally replacing some or all of the flowers. Cultivated, persisting, and possibly
escaped; included based on citation of vegetational area 4 (Blackland Prairie) by Hatch et
al. (1990); no county distribution map is provided; also cited by Hatch et al. (1990) for South TX
Plains and Cross Timbers and Prairies; scattered in e U.S. w to WI and TX, also CA, OR, MT, and
WA. May–Jun. Native of w Asia. This species, the ONION of commerce, is widely grown and has
numerous cultivars resulting from ca. 3,000 years of cultivation (Stearn 1980). It is often polyploid
(2n = 16, 32, 54), is unknown in the wild, and is thought to be derived from A. oschaninii O.
Fedtsch., native to c Asia (Davies 1992; McNeal & Jacobsen 2002). I
Allium drummondii Regel, (for its discoverer, Thomas Drummond, 1780–1835, Scottish botanist
and collector in North America), DRUMMOND’S ONION, PRAIRIE ONION. Leaves 1–3(–5) mm wide;
flowering stem 7–30 cm tall; involucral bracts usually 1-nerved; umbel with 10–25 flowers;
pedicels ca. 6–18 mm long; perianth segments 6–9 mm long, white to pink, lavender, or purplered
(rarely greenish yellow), remaining spreading after flowering, becoming dry, papery and
rigid. Sandy or gravelly, often limestone soils; widespread throughout TX; c U.S. from AR and
TX w to NE and NM. Mar–May. m/274
Allium elmendorfii M.E. Jones ex Ownbey, (named for Elmendorf, TX, in Bexar Co., near the type
locality), ELMENDORF WILD ONION, MARION’S WILD ONION, WILD ONION. Bulbs with a few shortstalked
basal bulblets, the bulb coats lacking net-like fibers; leaves 1–2 mm wide; flowering
stem 15–40 cm tall; umbel with 10–30 flowers; perianth segments ca. 5 mm long, white or pinkish,
withering and not permanently enclosing the capsule. Sandy soils, grassland openings in
post oak woodlands; Gonzales, Guadalupe (BAYLU), Bexar, and Wilson (Carr 2001) cos. near s
margin of East TX; otherwise known only from Atascosa (Ownbey 1951; Correll & Johnston
1970), Bee, Kenedy, Llano, Nueces, San Patricio (TOES 1993), Aransas (Carr 2001), Frio (McNeal
& Jacobsen 2002), and Refugio (Poole et al. 2002) cos.; endemic to TX (Kartesz 1999; Carr
2002b, 2002c; McNeal & Jacobsen 2002). Mar–Apr. This species is similar to A. runyonii, which