Olympic onion is a small, bulb-forming wild onion native to the mountains of the Pacific Northwest, found on talus slopes and alpine tundra. It is grown in gardens mainly for its pink flowers and needs cold winters, good drainage and full sun.
Family
Amaryllidaceae (Daffodil & onion family)
Grows as
Bulb
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly during the growing season and keep it dry in summer dormancy.
Soil
Gritty, free-draining soil such as a rock garden or alpine mix.
Temperature
Hardy to around -20 °C; needs cold winters, and heat and humidity are poorly tolerated.
How easy
Moderate
Edible
Yes, some parts
Native range
SW. Canada to W. Oregon
Climate
temperate
About
Allium crenulatum, common name Olympic onion, is a plant species native to Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. It grows in the Cascades, the Coast Ranges, the Olympic Mountains, the Wenatchee Mountains, and the mountains on Vancouver Island. There is one report from Alabama, but this needs verification. The species grows on talus slopes and in alpine tundra at elevations of 600–2500 m.
Allium crenulatum produces ovoid bulbs up to 2 cm long, formed on rhizomes some distance from the parent bulb. Its leaves are flat, up to 35 cm long, sometimes with minute teeth along the margins. Scape is flattened and winged, up to 15 cm tall. Umbel is compact, with up to 25 flowers. Flowers bell-shaped, up to 13 mm across; tepals pink with darker pink midveins; anthers yellow or purple; pollen yellow.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Allium crenulatum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.