Nodding onion, a perennial herb with characteristic onionlike 

 odor and taste, is probably the most widespread and familiar of wild 

 onions and is, therefore, selected to illustrate the genus. Its range 

 extends from Saskatchewan to Colorado and Washington. 



ONIONS (Al'lium spp.) 



Onions are well-known perennials of the lily family, with nearly 

 76 species native to the West. They are found throughout the 

 United States, being especially common in California. Ordinarily 

 they grow in moist places on the plains, in the foothills, and 

 meadows, as well as in woodlands and thickets. 



Allium is the ancient Latin name of garlic, and onions are most 

 readily recognized by their distinct onionlike or garliclike odor and 

 taste. It has been shown that this is due "to an essential oil that is 

 specific for each species." * Another distinguishing characteristic 

 of these plants is their growth from solid or layered bulbs with the 

 crown encircled by flat or cylindrical and sometimes tapering leaves. 

 The flowers, borne in solitary, slightly rounded clusters on the end of 

 a leafless stalk from 2 inches to S 1 /^ feet high, vary in color from 

 pinkish or purplish to white. Each petal has a purplish or pink 

 middle line. Whitish, paperlike scales occur where the flower stems 

 branch from the end of the stalk. Onions are prolific seeders and 

 often grow in very dense patches on favorable soils. 



Range onions, which usually are succulent and often abundant, are highly 

 palatable to cattle and sheep. The different species vary considerably in size 

 and amount of herbage. Some small species spring up quickly after the snow 

 melts but wither and blow away with the coming of dry summer weather. 

 A few species, especially the introduced ones, remain green during the. season. 

 Onions are an important and valuable forage genus, except for horses, which 

 only occasionally consume them. This genus furnishes green, succulent herbage 

 early in the spring, when it is eaten readily by cattle and sheep. Some stock- 

 men make the mistake of turning their livestock onto the range in order to 

 utilize onions before the main crop of forage plants have developed sufficiently 

 to justify grazing. Such a practice is injurious to the more permanent vegeta- 

 tion on which proper seasonal use of the range should be based. Onions are 

 objectionable for dairy cows unless grazed judiciously, because the volatile 

 oils in these plants flavor the milk. Elk in Yellowstone Park and elsewhere 

 feed extensively on onions, especially in spring. Bears dig up and eat the bulbs. 

 Indians also utilized these bulbs as a source of food. 



A number of familiar cultivated plants belong to the onion genus, including 

 the garden onion (Allium oe-pa), shallot or scallions (A. ascalonicum), leek 

 (A. porrum), and chives (A. schoenoprasum) , as well as the ornamental, yel- 

 low-flowered moly, or lily leek (A. moly), of the flower gardens. 



For centuries a medicinal oil has been commercially extracted from the 

 cultivated garlic (A. sativum). 2 being used medicinally in several forms of 

 bronchitis and for nervous diseases of young children, and acts as a general 

 mild stimulant. The bruised bulbs are also used as a poultice in the treatment 

 of catarrhal pneumonia. Canada garlic (A. canadense), which occurs from 

 Maine to Colorado, is of equal value for medicinal purposes. 



1 Platenius, H. D. A METHOD FOR ESTIMATING THE VOLATILE SULPHUR CONTENT AND 

 PUNGENCY OF ONIONS. Journ. Agr. Research [U. S.] 51 (9) : 847-853, illus. 1935. 



2 Wood, H. C., Remington, J. P., and Sudtler, S. P., assisted by Lyons. A. B., and Wood, 



H. C., Jr. THE DISPENSATORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, BY DR. GEO. B. WOOD 



AND DR. FRANKLIN BACHE. Ed. 19, thoroughly rev. and largely rewritten. . . . 1947 

 pp. Philadelphia and London, 1907. 



