''Allium platycaule'' is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

wild onion Wild onion can refer to * any uncultivated species in the genus ''Allium'', especially: **'' Allium bisceptrum'' ** ''Allium canadense'' ** ''Allium tricoccum'' ** '' Allium validum'' ** '' Allium vineale'' ** ''Allium ochotense'' * '' Asphodelus te ...

known as broadstemmed onion or flat-stem onion. It is native to northeastern

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, south-central

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

( Lake County) and northwestern

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

( Washoe and Humboldt Counties). It is found on slopes of elevations of 1500–2500 m. ''Allium platycaule'' grows from a gray

bulb In botany, a bulb is a short underground stem with fleshy leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food storage organs duri ...

wide. Scape is thin and strongly flattened, up to long but rarely more than across. It may be thicker along the midrib and much narrower along the sides. The long, flat leaves are sickle-shaped. Atop the stem is an

umbel UMBEL (Upper Mapping and Binding Exchange Layer) is a logically organized knowledge graph of 34,000 concepts and entity types that can be used in information science for relating information from disparate sources to one another. It was retired ...

which may have as many as 90 flowers in it. Each flower may be up to a centimeter and a half wide but the

tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...

s are quite narrow so as to be almost threadlike. The inflorescence therefore may appear be a dense ball of filaments. The flowers are generally bright pink to magenta with yellow anthers.

Uses

The leaves, bulbs, and seeds were utilized as food by the

Northern Paiute Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ...

people.Ethnobotany
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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Allium Platycaule platycaule Onions Flora of California Flora of Oregon Flora of Nevada Flora of the Great Basin ~ Plants described in 1879 Taxa named by Sereno Watson Flora without expected TNC conservation status