Long-stamen onion is a wild onion from East Asia, where people have long gathered its bulbs and leaves as a spring vegetable; it isn't known to grow wild in the United States. Many of its flowers often turn into tiny bulbs that drop off and grow into new plants. It's also called Japanese wild onion.
Appearance
- Appearance
- A single round white bulb up to about 3/4 in (2 cm) across. The leaves are hollow and shorter than the flower stalk, which reaches roughly 16–32 in (40–80 cm).
- Flowers
- A dense, rounded cluster of many pale pink to pale purple flowers; some or all of the flowers are often replaced by small bulbs ().
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Fields
- Roadsides
- Grassy banks
- Range
- Native to much of East Asia: China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Tibet, and the Russian Far East, from sea level up to about 9,800 ft (3,000 m).
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- LCLeast ConcernLow risk of extinction
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- An ancient Chinese medical classic, the Huangdi Neijing, lists it among the "five vegetables." Its dried bulb is known as xiebai in traditional Chinese medicine.
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