''Allium drummondii'', also known as Drummond's onion, wild garlic and prairie onion, is a North American species of

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onio ...

native to the southern Great Plains of North America. It is found in

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large porti ...

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

, Oklahoma,

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

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New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...

, and northeastern

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.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref> ''Allium drummondii'' is a bulb-forming perennial. The flowers appear in April and May, in a variety of colors ranging from white to pink. It is common, considered invasive in some regions.

Uses

This species of ''Allium'' is gathered by Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Native Americans for its small edible bulbs. These contain a considerable amount of inulin, a non-Reducing sugar, reducing sugar that humans cannot digest. Because of this, these onions must be heated for a long period of time in order to convert the inulin into digestible sugars.Bailey, L.H. & E.Z. Bailey. 1976. Hortus Third i–xiv, 1–1290. MacMillan, New York.

References

External links

* Allium, drummondii Flora of the Great Plains (North America) Flora of the United States Flora of the North-Central United States Flora of the South-Central United States Flora of Northeastern Mexico Garlic Plants described in 1875 Taxa named by Eduard August von Regel {{Allium-stub