Allium carolinianum Redouté

A plant of inner high ranges with pretty rose coloured flowers.

Bulb cylindrical to ovoid, outer coats coriaceous, dull brown, inner membranous. Scapes 15 to 50 cm tall, base covered with leaf bases. Leaves 5-6, broadly linear to lanceolate, falcate, not fistular, apex obtuse. Umbel many flowered, 1.5-3 cm across. Teplas pink to rose coloured, lanceolate, 6-7 mm long. Filaments longer than the tepals, entire, connate at the base. Style exserted, stigma capitate. Capsules ± globose; seeds elliptic, oblong or ovate, c. 3.5 mm long, surface granulate.

Bulbs usually paired, ovoid to ovoid-cylindric, 1--2.5 cm in diam.; tunic brown to yellowish brown, leathery, apex separated, usually fibrous. Leaves broadly linear, usually falcate, shorter than scape, (3--)5--15 mm wide, flat, smooth, apex obtuse. Scape 20--40(--60) cm, terete, covered with leaf sheaths for ca. 1/2 its length. Spathe 2-valved, persistent. Umbel globose, densely many flowered. Pedicels subequal, slightly shorter than to 2 × as long as perianth, bracteolate or ebracteolate. Perianth pale red to purple-red or white; segments oblong to narrowly so, (4.5--)6--8(--9.4) × 1.5--3 mm, apex obtuse, sometimes retuse; inner ones subequaling to slightly longer than outer. Filaments subulate, slightly shorter than than to 2 × as long as perianth segments, connate at base and adnate to perianth segments for ca. 1 mm; inner ones wider than outer at base. Ovary subglobose, with concave nectaries at base. Style exserted. Fl. and fr. Jun--Sep. 2 n = 32.

C. Asia, Afghanistan, Himalaya (Kashmir to Nepal).

Distribution: Himalayas in India and Pakistan, Afghanistan, mountains in Soviet Central Asia.

Xinjiang, N and W Xizang [Afghanistan, ?Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, W Nepal, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan].

4800-5100 m

Fl. Per.: July-August.

Gravelly or stony slopes; 3000--5000 m.

Allium aitchisonii Baker (1882), not Regel (1879); A. obtusifolium Klotzsch; A. platyspathum Schrenk var. falcatum Regel; A. platystylum Regel; A. polyphyllum Karelin & Kirilov; A. thomsonii Baker.

Allium carolinianum is a species of onions native to central and southern Asia (Xinjiang, Xizang (Tibet), Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan). It grows in sunlit slopes at elevations of 3000–5000 m.

Allium carolinianum produces egg-shaped bulbs up to 25 mm across. Scapes are round in cross-section, up to 60 cm tall. Leaves are narrow, flat, shorter than the scape. Umbel is round, with many white, red or purplish flowers.