Allium vineale

Vineyard onion

Family: Alliaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Vineyard onion is a naturalized perennial found in southern northwestern California, northern Sierra Nevada foothills, Sacramento Valley, northern coastal California, and southern coastal California in disturbed places at elevations below 100 meters. Flowering from June to August, this plant produces green-white to purple flowers in small clusters, with many sterile flowers often replaced by stalked bulblets. Growing with tall stems 30 to 100 centimeters high, it develops an ovoid bulb 1 to 2 centimeters wide that produces several hard-shelled bulblets. Its leaves are 2 to 4 in number, much shorter than the stem, measuring 20 to 60 centimeters long and 2 to 4 millimeters in diameter. The bulb develops an interesting outer coat that turns brown to yellow, splitting into strips with vertically elongated cells in narrow, wavy rows.

Habitat: Uncommon. Disturbed places

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: < 100 m

Bioregions: s NW, n SNF, ScV, n CW, SCo

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