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.