''Allium victorialis'', commonly known as victory onion, Alpine leek, and Alpine broad-leaf allium is a broad-leaved Eurasian species of wild
onion. It is a perennial of the
Amaryllis family
The Amaryllidaceae are a family of herbaceous, mainly perennial and bulbous (rarely rhizomatous) flowering plants in the monocot order Asparagales. The family takes its name from the genus ''Amaryllis'' and is commonly known as the amaryllis fami ...
that occurs widely in mountainous regions of
Europe and parts of
Asia (
Caucasus and
Himalayas).
[
Some authors consider certain East Asian and Alaskan populations as constituting subspecies ''platyphyllum'' within the species ''Allium victorialis''. Recent sources recognize this group as a distinct species, called '']Allium ochotense
''Allium ochotense'', the Siberian onion, is a primarily East Asian species of wild onion native to northern Japan, Korea, China, and the Russian Far East, as well as on Attu Island in Alaska.
Some authors have considered ''A. ochotense'' as bel ...
.''[Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, ''Allium ochotense'' Prokh.]
/ref>
General description
''Allium victorialis'' attains a height of and forms a sheathed bulb
In botany, a bulb is structurally a short 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 ...
("root-stalk") about the thickness of a finger and long.[. height; and rootstalk .] Leaves are broad elliptical or lanceolate. Flowers ( perianths) are whitish green.[
]
Distribution
''Allium victorialis'' is found widely across mountain ranges Europe, as well as the Caucasus and the Himalayas.[Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, ''Allium victorialis'']
/ref>
Nomenclature
The specific epithet
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
''victorialis'' comes from the German ''Siegwurz'' (Root of Victory),[
]
Uses
The plant, in past centuries in certain mountainous regions of Europe, "was cultivated as a medicinal and fetish plant". It was also recorded as consumed by Ainu people in northern Japan.
See also
*sansai
is a Japanese word literally meaning "mountain vegetables", originally referring to vegetables that grew naturally, were foraged in the wild, and not grown and harvested from fields. However, in modern times, the distinction is somewhat blur ...
*ramsons
''Allium ursinum'', known as wild garlic, ramsons, cowleekes, cows's leek, cowleek, buckrams, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek, Eurasian wild garlic or bear's garlic, is a bulbous perennial flowering plant in the amaryllis family Amary ...
*'' Allium tricoccum'' (ramps)
References
Bibliography
*
External links
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{{Taxonbar, from=Q162924
victorialis
Flora of Europe
Flora of temperate Asia
Japanese vegetables
Plants described in 1753
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
Onions