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Allium dregeanum
Also called Wild Onion
Cape Onion (Allium dregeanum) is a wild onion native to South Africa and the only Allium species endemic to sub-Saharan Africa. It is grown mainly as a hardy bulbous plant in gardens with well-drained soil and seasonal rainfall.
Allium dregeanum is the sole known species of Allium endemic to sub-Saharan Africa. It has also been described as the only Allium species endemic to the Southern Hemisphere, though some descriptions of the genus also include Allium juncifolium (Chile) and Allium sellovianum (Brazil), which are much less studied than Allium dregeanum. The distribution of Allium dregeanum extends from the summer-rainfall region, into the winter-rainfall zone of South Africa. Since Allium species are almost exclusively found in the Northern Hemisphere, with major centers of diversity in Central Asia and western North America, the biogeographical history of Allium dregeanum is of interest.
Though some theories have been put forward, no explanation for the geographic isolation of Allium dregeanum has been confirmed.
South Idaho onion · Allium abbasii · Abrams' allium · Allium acidoides · Allium aciphyllum · Tapertip onion · Allium acutiflorum · Allium aeginiense · Allium aflatunense · Allium agrigentinum · Allium akaka · Allium akirense
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Allium dregeanum 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.
