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Largeflower onion

Allium macropetalum

Also called Large Flower Onion, San Juan Onion

Largeflower onion
Photo: Andrey Zharkikh from Salt Lake City, USA, CC BY 2.0

Largeflower onion is a small wild onion from desert plains and hills of the southwestern US and northwestern Mexico, grown from a bulb. It needs full sun, very sharp drainage and a dry rest period to thrive.

Family
Amaryllidaceae (Daffodil & onion family)
Grows as
Bulb
Light
Full sun
Water
Water moderately while growing in spring, then keep dry through summer and fall when the bulb is dormant.
Soil
Very well-drained gritty or sandy mix, such as cactus or bulb mix with added grit.
Temperature
Hardy to around -10 °C when dry; protect bulbs from prolonged wet cold.
How easy
Easy
Edible
Yes, some parts
Native range
Utah to Texas and Mexico (Sonora)
Climate
subtropical

About

Allium macropetalum, the desert onion, is a species of wild onion native to the desert regions of southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It is known from desert plains and hills in Sonora, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas, at elevations up to 2500 m.

Allium macropetalum forms egg-shaped bulbs up to 2.5 cm long. Flowers are bell-shaped, pink to purple, up to 12 mm across, with yellow or purple anthers.

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 macropetalum 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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