Posts Tagged: allium
Please Identify this Backyard Allium (Onion or Leek or ?)
Help for the Home Gardener from the Help Desk of the
UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County
Client: I need help identifying the alliums in my backyard garden. These alliums have been growing in the backyard for 20+ years on their own. I always thought they were leeks but after pulling one out the other day to examine it, I'm not sure what it is anymore. It smells like an onion but it doesn't have all of the layers. Thank you for your help!
The description of A. triquetum is:
• leaves are mid-green with a rib running up one side that makes them more rigid;
• spherical white bulbs that reproduce vegetatively by dividing;
• white flowers atop a triangular stem in April and May;
• the whole plant dies back after blooming and setting seed
You can compare the group of photos (right) of Allium triquetum to compare to yours.
However, what is a little confusing is that there are no flowers evident in your photos, and this makes me question the identification. If you could bring us a sample of your plants, we would be able to do a more positive identification. Or you could send us photos of the flowers and confirmation that your plants die back after flowering.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Help Desk of the Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County (SEH)
Note: The UC Master Gardeners Program of Contra Costa's Help Desk is available year-round to answer your gardening questions. Except for a few holidays, we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 75 Santa Barbara Road, 2d Floor, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523. We can also be reached via telephone: (925) 646-6586, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/ MGCC Blogs can be found at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Blog (//ucanr.edu/blogs/CCMGBlog/).
/span>Leeks, An Unexpected Garden Vegetable.
I haven't always appreciated leeks. I grew up in a home where we never ate them, so I didn't...
This (Wild) Onion Makes Me Cry!
When it recently rained for days in a row, I stood at the window and watched my weeds grow. I have quite the variety of weeds, as I suspect we all do, but some I don’t really mind. For example, Oxalis is extremely invasive, but it is somewhat pretty and is almost enjoyably easy to pull up from the soil. Even if I don’t always get all of the bulbs like I should, at least I can hold some hope that I’m weakening the bulbs by pulling up the rest of the plant. Plus, Oxalis goes dormant with the summer heat. Out of sight, out of mind, right?
But my least favorite? The wild onion, Allium triquetrum, which is also known as the three-cornered leek. It’s not an ugly weed—in fact, it is sometimes cultivated as an ornamental. It has flower stems of about 1 foot tall, with nodding clusters of small, bell-shaped, white flowers. Not surprisingly, it has a strong onion smell.
The wild onion multiplies quickly, spreading by bulbs and seeds, and it is very hard to remove once established. Like Oxalis, it can be controlled by digging up the entire plant, including the bulbs. But unlike Oxalis, which pulls up easily (thus giving me a false, yet satisfying, sense of accomplishment), wild onion snaps at the soil level every time I try to pull it up. So the entire plant must be dug up, which is difficult to do given the extent of its spread throughout the yard, its proximity to other more desirable plants, and the depth to which I must to dig. And I think that’s what I find so aggravating about the wild onion. I could quit work and dig wild onions for the rest of my days, but I’m still fairly sure that I will not prevail. It spreads so quickly and so thoroughly! So at best, I try to content myself with digging a few plants and snapping off the flower stalks so that the plants don’t spread even more via seed. I know there are worse weeds, but this wild onion is the one onion that makes me want to cry.
Close up of wild onion flowers. (photos by Erin Mahaney)
Note the cluster of white onion plants.