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Lemmon's onion

Allium lemmonii

Lemmon's onion
Photo: John Game, CC BY 2.0

Lemmon's onion (Allium lemmonii) is a small wild onion from the western United States that grows from a bulb and produces clusters of bell-shaped white to pink flowers. It is a hardy, drought-tolerant native that does best in dry, well-drained clay or gritty soil.

Family
Amaryllidaceae (Daffodil & onion family)
Grows as
Bulb
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly during the growing season and keep dry while dormant.
Soil
Dry, well-drained clay or gritty mineral soil.
Temperature
Hardy to cold winters typical of its high-desert range; protect from prolonged waterlogging.
How easy
Easy
Edible
Yes, some parts
Native range
W. U.S.A.
Climate
temperate

About

Allium lemmonii is a species of wild onion known by the common name Lemmon's onion, named for botanist John Gill Lemmon (1831–1908). It is native to the western United States, at elevations of 1200–1900 m in the Great Basin of Utah, Nevada, northern and eastern California, eastern Oregon, southwestern Idaho.

Lemmon's onion grows from a bulb one and a half to two centimeters wide and has a short, flattened stem up to 20 cm tall, which is thin along the edges. Atop the stem is an inflorescence of 10 to 40 bell-shaped flowers, which may be white to pink. The stamens may be purple or yellow; pollen is yellow. The ovary has a distinctive ridged mound shape in which all of the ovary parts appear melded together. This is a common plant in its native range. It favors dry clay soils.

Other Allium plants

South Idaho onion · Abrams' allium · Allium aciphyllum · Tapertip onion · Allium aeginiense · Allium aflatunense · Allium agrigentinum · Allium alabasicum · Allium albotunicatum · Allium alibile · Altai Onion · Allium altissimum

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Allium lemmonii 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.

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