﻿Notes on Michigan Liliaceae* 



NEW VARIETIES OF ALLIUM CANADENSE 

 In Michigan there are three well-defined races or varieties of 

 the common wild garlic, Allium canadense L. The type, with 

 narrow leaves and numerous, small, ovoid, whitish, obtuse or 

 acutish bulblets in the simple umbel; a form with noticeably 

 broader leaves but with fewer, larger, long-acuminate bulblets 

 which are red at maturity; and a larger, glaucous, form with more 

 fleshy leaves, often with two or three sessile, contiguous umbels, 

 which bear a larger number of obovoid or nearly spherical bulblets 

 of a yellowish white color. There is such a marked difference in 

 the appearance of these forms, at least in the living state, that it 

 seems advisable to name them and place them on record. 



Allium canadense ovoideum var. nov. 



Bulb ovoid, about 19 mm. long, outer coats fibrous-reticulated, 

 5-8 cm. below the surface; plant 3-4 dm. high, green, with four 

 or five leaves near the base, these equalling the scape or a little 

 shorter; umbel terminal, mostly of a few, twelve or less, large, 

 ovoid-acuminate, sessile bulblets with or without a few long-pedi- 

 celled flowers and some secondary umbels of one to three bulb- 

 lets, on long rays 5-10 cm. long; involucre of one to three ovate, 

 acuminate, scarious bracts, 2.5-4 cm. long; bulblets of the umbel 

 gradually tapering from a broad base, the larger about 22 mm. 

 in length, mostly rose colored at maturity; generally there are no 

 flowers but some umbels may have from one to four, and occa- 

 sionally there may be one in one of the umbellets; the flowers are 

 pale purple, on pedicels 5 cm. in length, 8 mm. across when open, 

 5-6 mm. high; segments acute, the outer narrowly ovate, the 

 inner oblong or linear. 



On wet banks in open fields. Michigan: near Rochester, June 

 II, 1914, Farwell 3667. 



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