Allium campanulatum

Dusky onion

Family: Alliaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Dusky onion is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, North Coast Ranges, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, South Coast Ranges, Southwest California, and Modoc Plateau in dry mountain slopes at elevations of 600 to 2,600 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces rose to purple flowers (occasionally white) with a distinctive purple crescent at the base of the perianth parts, arranged in clusters of 10 to 50 blooms. Growing with slender stems 10 to 30 centimeters tall, it emerges from a small ovoid bulb that often produces clustered bulblets at its base. Its two leaves are widely channeled and typically withered during flowering, approximately equal in length to the stem. The plant's distinctive bulb has uniquely wavy-walled outer cells, with inner layers ranging from pink to white.

Habitat: dry mountain slopes

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: 600-2600 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRO, CaR, SNH, SCoRO, SW, MP

California counties: Fresno, Kern, Butte, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, San Diego, Tuolumne, Placer, Santa Barbara, Mono, Humboldt, Trinity, Ventura, Tulare, Plumas, Siskiyou, Alpine, Shasta, El Dorado, Tehama, Madera, Calaveras, Nevada, Lassen, Lake, Mariposa, Inyo, Amador, Modoc, Sierra, Monterey, Riverside, Mendocino, Glenn, Stanislaus, San Luis Obispo, San Francisco, Yuba, Sacramento, San Benito

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.