Allium validum

Pacific mountain onion

Family: Alliaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Pacific mountain onion is a California native perennial found in northwestern California, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, and Warner Mountains in wet meadows at elevations of 1,200 to 3,400 meters. Flowering from June to August, this plant produces rose to white flowers in clusters of 15 to 40 blooms, with delicate narrowly lanceolate perianth parts. Growing with tall stems 50 to 100 centimeters high that are distinctly angled, it emerges from a clustered oblong-ovoid bulb 3 to 5 centimeters long with a fine-striate brown outer coating. Its leaves are 3 to 6 in number, roughly equal in length to the stem and either flat or slightly keeled. The plant forms dense clusters on short, stout rhizomes, creating distinctive patches in mountain meadow environments.

Habitat: Common. Wet meadows, often with

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: 1200-3400 m

Bioregions: NW, CaRH, SNH, Wrn

California counties: Alpine, Mono, El Dorado, Fresno, Tulare, Tuolumne, Plumas, Trinity, Inyo, Mariposa, Nevada, Siskiyou, Lake, Madera, Butte, Placer, Los Angeles, Modoc, Kern, Amador, Tehama, Glenn, Sierra, Mendocino, Monterey, Santa Clara, Humboldt, Alameda, Del Norte

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