Common Name: ONION or GARLIC FAMILY
Habit: Perennial herb; bulb 1 or on rhizomes, reforming each year; bulblets at bulb bases or on rhizomes; outer bulb coat brown, red-brown, yellow-brown, or gray; inner coats generally white (pink, red, or yellow); onion odor, taste present (except Nothoscordum). Stem: scapose, cylindric, sometimes flat or triangular. Leaf: basal, sheathing stem, linear [or not], cylindric, channeled or flat, generally +- withering from tip by flowering. Inflorescence: umbel (1-flowered in Ipheion), bracts generally 2, splitting and appearing 2+ or not, +- fused, enclosing flower buds, scarious. Flower: perianth parts 6 in 2 petal-like whorls, +- free to fused in lower 1/3--1/2; stamens 6, fused to perianth, filaments widened at base, anthers attached at middle; ovary superior, 3-lobed, chambers 3, ovules 2+ per chamber, style 1, stigma entire or +- 3-lobed. Fruit: capsule, loculicidal. Seed: black, sculpture net-like, smooth, or granular.
Genera In Family: 13 genera, 750--800 species: worldwide. Note: Many cultivated for food, ornamental.
eFlora Treatment Author: Dale W. McNeal
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.

Common Name: ONION, GARLIC
Habit: Outer bulb coat generally brown to gray, inner generally white. Stem: scapose, cylindric, triangular in ×-section, or flat. Leaf: basal, 1--5[12] per stem, linear, cylindric, channeled, or flat, generally withering from tip before flower. Inflorescence: umbel, flowers 3--many, rarely all or in part replaced by bulblets; bracts generally 2--4, obvious, +- fused, scarious. Flower: perianth parts +- free, generally with darker or contrasting midvein, outer generally wider; filaments fused into a ring; ovary with 0, 3, or 6 crests, ovules generally 2 per chamber. Seed: obovoid, generally unappendaged.
Etymology: (Latin: garlic) Note: Replanting bulbs after study essential for survival of pl; shape, arrangement of cells of outer bulb coat (outer bulb coat sculpture) generally important in identification, generally determined only with magnification; color of outer bulb coat may be masked by substrate; stem lengths from top of bulb to base of inflorescence, not from substrate surface.
eFlora Treatment Author: Dale W. McNeal & Julie A. Kierstead
Reference: McNeal & Jacobsen 2002 FNANM 26:224--276; Wheeler et al. 2013 Amer J Bot 100:701--711

Habit: Bulb 10--17 mm, ovoid to +- spheric; outer coat red-brown, sculpture 0 or cells +- square, in 2--3 rows basally; inner coats pale brown to white. Stem: 10--37 cm. Leaf: 1, 1.5--2 × stem, cylindric. Inflorescence: flowers 6--75; pedicels 6--20 mm. Flower: (6)8--12 mm; perianth parts lanceolate to ovate, entire, dark red-purple to white; ovary crests 6, obvious, dentate to deeply cut.