Allium amethystinum explained

Allium amethystinum is a plant species native to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Sicily, Crete, Malta, Albania, Bulgaria, and the former Yugoslavia, and cultivated elsewhere as an ornamental.^[1] It is one of several species that horticulturalists refer to as "drumstick onions" because of the tight spherical "knob" of flowers at the top, resembling a drumstick.^{[2] [3]}

Allium amethystinum has a single bulb. Leaves are tubular, withering before flowering time. Flowers are reddish-purple, the tepals barely opening at flowering time, remaining wrapped around the ovary and filaments so that only the anthers and stigma are exposed.^{[4] [5]}

Notes and References

1. http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/namedetail.do?name_id=294968 Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
2. http://luirig.altervista.org/flora/taxa/index1.php?scientific-name=allium+amethystinum Altervista, Schede di Botanica, Allium amethystinum
3. http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/DrumstickAlliums Pacific Bulb Society, Milwaukie, Oregon USA. Drumstick onions
4. Ignaz Friedrich Tausch. 1828. Syll. Ratlb. ii. 256.
5. Web site: Malta Wild Plants, Round-headed leek . 2014-03-28 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140417000947/http://www.maltawildplants.com/AMRY/Allium_amethystinum.php . 2014-04-17 . dead .