Botanical name: Allium jammuense    Family: Amaryllidaceae (Nargis family)

Jammu Onion is a newly discovered perennial herb, somewhat similar to Allium roylei. Flowers are borne in a hemispheric, 17-25 lax flowered umbel, about 1.6 cm in diameter, atop a foot long leafless stem. Flowers are bisexual, without bulbils; flower-stalks slender, nearly equal, 1.2-1.7 cm x 1-2 mm, hairless. Tepals are 6, white with distinct green mid-nerve, elliptic-oblong, 7-11 x 3-5 mm, tip somewhat pointed to blunt, fused at base, membranous, hairless. Stamens are 6, dissimilar; filaments nearly equal, 2 shorter, 4 longer, 4.5-7 mm long, slightly protruding, fused at base; anthers elliptic, yellowish, 2-3.2 mm long. Ovary is nearly spherical, green, 0.4-0.6 × 1 mm, 3-lobed, each lobe mid- grooved; style white, round, sharp-tipped, about 1.3 mm long; stigma inprominent. Bulbs are narrowly ovoid, 3.8-6.6 x 0.8-1.2 cm, outer tunic reddish-dark brown, membranous, leathery, inner ones lighter in color, sparsely rooting from base. Leaves are basal, erect, up to 4-6, shorter than the flowering stem, 15-35 x about 0.1 cm, hollow, round, smooth, dark green. Flowering stem is round, erect, covered with leaf sheaths at base only, solid in early stage, hollow when mature, 16-32 x 0.1 cm. Spathe is boat-shaped, persistent, beaked, membranous, entire, about 1 cm long. Capsules are obovoid, seeds rectangular-oblong, smooth, black. Jammu Onion is known only from the Trikuta Hills of Jammu, at altitudes of 1250-1670 m. Flowering: May-June.

Your name:
Your email:
Your comments
The flower labeled Jammu Onion is ...