Allium 2012

[RickR]

Luc,

What is the range of age in these beauties you regale us with?

[LucS]

You have to count 5+ years from sowing to see the first flowers. These species from the acanthoprason section are rather slow growers.

[Tony Willis]

Luc a tremendous range there and beautifully grown. They seem a lot less leggy than mine and think you must have better light. A really interesting variation.

[McDonough]

Wonderful assortment there Luc.  A have a number of these coming along from Kurt Vickery and Pilous seed, but merely as tiny 1-2 year seedlings; all are being grown outside.  I sowed Kurt Vickery's Allium aff. elburzense in two spots, each has about a dozen seedlings.  Only 4-5 years to see what happens.  But then again, I had my first seed-gown plant of Trillium discolor - Pale Form flower from seed I sowed outside in 2006, all one needs is patience.

[LucS]

Patience is what we have.
More species will be flowering size in the next 1-2 years.

[LucS]

A few more grown under glassroof
Allium colchicifolium from Turkey
Allium sp. (ellissii ?) from Iran
Allium materculae var. albiflorum from Iran/Azerbaijan

[McDonough]

More beauties Luc, I'm particularly keen to get A. colchicifolium some day, love the contrasting color of dark ovaries with clean white flowers.  My Allium aff. ellisii expired a couple years ago, but I'm happy to have some 2-year seedlings from K. Vickery's "aff. ellisii".  I also have a few 2-year seedlings of A. materculae coming along (not the albiflorum variety), but time will tell whether I shall succeed with these sown-and-grown outdoors.

[John85]

Is there somebody who can give me some information about A.diclamydeum?

[stephenb]

Could I please have some help with this Allium, received as A. meteoricum. I was struck by the rather smart black pedicels:

[McDonough]

Is there somebody who can give me some information about A.diclamydeum?

John, Allium dichlamydeum is a low elevation coastal Californian species, low in stature and very showy, with deep pink-rose flowers.  Here I can keep it for aabout 2-3 years but it always fizzles out and disappears in my climate, I don't think it is among the hardiest of Allium because of its low coastal native haunts.  There are some good photos showing the plant and its native haunts on the Pacific Bulb Society photo galleries:

Allium dichlamydeum
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/AmericanAlliumsTwo

[McDonough]

Could I please have some help with this Allium, received as A. meteoricum. I was struck by the rather smart black pedicels:

Stephen, I'm mystified by that one. Examining the bulbs/roots, is it rhizomatous or a bulbous species?  It's been about 10 years since I grew A. meteoricum (a small bulbous allium that was among my favorites); your plant looks very different, and the black pedicels... mesmerizing!  Do you know the seed source?

[John85]

 Allium schoenoprasum major and A.sch.var sibericum
What is the difference please?

[stephenb]

I dug up a clump this evening and enclose a couple more pictures. I've also found out who sent me the seed and have asked if he recognises the plant.

[McDonough]

Allium schoenoprasum major and A.sch.var sibericum
What is the difference please?

Back in the early 1990s I made a compilation of varieties and taxonomic combinations for Allium schoenoprasum; there are dozens of published varieties and forms, although almost none of them are recognized, they are considered to fall within the natural genetic variability of the species.  Since Allium schoenoprasum has the largest distribution of any allium species (most of the northern hemisphere), it is not unusual I suppose that so many varieties were separately described.

Allium schoenoprasum var. sibiricum Garcke is considered by Dr. Nikolai Friesen in 1996 to be a synonym of A. schoenoprasum.  It was described as a tall robust large-flowered form from Siberia and North America.  The same name, as described by other authors, was identified as a new species in 1988, also by Friesen, as Allium altyncolicum. 

The name "major" must surely be a horticultural concoction of no legitimate meaning, it's not a name that was published. Searching google yields very few results, most likely someone applied the name "major" to a larger growing form of chives.

[McDonough]

I dug up a clump this evening and enclose a couple more pictures. I've also found out who sent me the seed and have asked if he recognises the plant.

I'm still mystified about which allium this could be.  I wonder if the pedicel color carries any diagnostic importance; often pedicel color can vary within a species.  I googled allium "black pedicels" and it came up with our very own previous conversation about some forms of Allium ochotense (typically this is a syn. of A. victorialis) with dark pedicels.    Allium cernuum has pedicels that range from green, through shades of reddish and purplish, and tones of gray to near black, thus not useful as a diagnostic characteristic in that case.

Very interesting Allium whatever it is.

Must photograph first bloom on an Allium from Kazakhstan from Panayotis Kelaidis' 2010 collecting expedition, it looks akin to A. saxatile, but I think it may be closer to A. kurssanovii.