Allium sikkimense Baker

Bulbs clustered, cylindric, 0.3--0.5 cm in diam.; tunic dark brown, fibrous, subreticulate at base, rarely laciniate. Leaves linear, shorter than scape, 2--5 mm wide, flat. Scape (5--)15--40 cm, terete, covered with leaf sheaths only at base. Spathe 1-valved, deciduous. Umbel hemispheric, densely many flowered. Pedicels subequal, shorter than to equaling perianth, ebracteolate. Perianth blue; segments ovate to ovate-oblong, 6--10 × 3--4.5 mm, apex obtuse; inner ones usually slightly longer and wider than outer, margin usually irregularly remotely denticulate. Filaments equal, 1/2--2/3 as long as perianth segments, connate and adnate to perianth segments for ca. 1 mm, usually all broadened at base, sometimes 1-toothed on each side. Ovary subglobose, with concave nectaries covered by short, hoodlike projections at base. Style shorter than to subequaling ovary, not exserted; stigma punctiform. Fl. and fr. Jul--Sep. 2 n = 32, 48*.

Himalaya (Nepal to Bhutan), W. China.

S Gansu, S Ningxia, E and S Qinghai, SW Shaanxi, W Sichuan, SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sikkim].

3000-4800 m

Forest margins, scrub, slopes, meadows; 2400--5000 m.

Allium cyaneum Regel var. brachystemon Regel; A. kansuense Regel; A. tibeticum Rendle.

Allium sikkimense is a plant species native to Sikkim, Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, India and parts of China (Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan). It grows in meadows and on the edges of forests at elevations of 2400–5000 m. The species is cultivated as an ornamental in other regions because of its strikingly beautiful blue flowers. It is used medicinally in the Sikkim Eastern Himalayas.

Allium sikkimense has a cluster of narrow bulbs generally less than 5 mm in diameter. Scape is up to 40 cm tall. Leaves are flat, narrow, shorter than the scape, up to 5 mm wide. Umbel is a densely crowded hemisphere of blue flowers.