Allium carinatum

keeled garlic
witch's garlic
Allium carinatum[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Asparagales
Family: Amaryllidaceae
Subfamily: Allioideae
Genus: Allium
Species: A. carinatum
Binomial name
Allium carinatum
L.
Synonyms[2]

Allium carinatum, the keeled garlic[3] or witch's garlic, is a perennial plant up to 60 cm tall. It is widespread across central + southern Europe, with some populations in Asiatic Turkey. It is cultivated in many places as an ornamental and also for its potently aromatic bulbs used as a food flavoring.[4]

Varieties

Numerous botanical names have been coined within the species at the varietal level, but only two are recognized:[5]

Description

Allium carinatum produces a single small bulb rarely more than 15 mm long, flat leaves, and an umbel of purple to reddish-purple flowers. The flowers are on long pedicels and often nodding (hanging downwards].[6][7]

Distribution

Allium carinatum is considered native to the Mediterranean Region from Spain to Turkey, north to Sweden and the Baltic Republics. It is naturalized in the British Isles[5]

References

  1. 1796 painting, Figure 38 from Deutschlands Flora in Abbildungen at http://www.biolib.de Author Johann Georg Sturm, Painted by Jacob Sturm; published by Kurt Stüber
  2. The Plant List
  3. "BSBI List 2007". Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original (xls) on 2015-02-25. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
  4. Plants for a Future
  5. 1 2 Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
  6. Linnaeus, Carl. 1753. Species Plantarum 1: 297.
  7. Altervista Schede di Botanica, Allium carnatum
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, January 08, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.