Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Liliopsida -- monocotyledons

Order: Liliales

Family: Liliaceae -- Lily

Common Name: tapertip onion, Hooker’s onion

Species Code: ALAC4

Origin: Native to western North America from southern British Columbia east to Montana and south to New Mexico.

Rare: Common in eastern Washington and northern Idaho but designated a "species of concern" for Montana by the Montana Natural Heritage Program.

Form: forb, perennial, scapose, 10-35 cm tall.

Duration: perennial

Longevity: short

Habitat Type: prairie, shrub thickets, forest

Wetland Indicator Status: not listed

Leaves: 2-4, shorter than the scape, withering by anthesis, concave-convex in cross section.

Mature height: 4-14 inches

Flowers: umbellate, rose pink to whitish, bell shaped; 6 tepals, the inner 3 serrulate, the outer entire.

Flower color: pink

Bloom: June, July

Bloom starts on: early June

Bloom ends on: early July

Fruit: capsule, seeds black.

Characteristics:
Same name in St. John 1963, Piper & Beattie 1914, Davis 1953.
The most common and widespread native Allium.
Reproduces both sexually by seed and vegetatively by bulb divisions.
253,691 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS Pullman PMC 2005).
Perennating organ is a bulb.
2n=14 (Chinnappa & Basappa 1986).
Flowers are perfect.
All parts are edible. Native peoples used the plants medicinally.
Fruit is a capsule.

Comments: It has been proposed to divide the family Liliaceae and Allium would then be placed in the family Alliaceae.

Sun requirement: full sun

Soil moisture: xeric

Precipitation: 10-60 inches (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).

Fire: bulbs probably survive most fires

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: fall

Stratification: extended cold moist

Seed yield: low

Seed harvest: medium difficulty

Seed first harvest: 3+ years

Seed cleaning: easy

Planting duration: long

Seed insect problem: none noted

Seed shatter: high

Seed size: small, 254,000 seeds/lb.

Seed harvest date: July

Seed comments: slow to flower, small plants

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Key words: native upland perennial forb

Propagation:
1 protocol in the Native Plant Network
Pullman WA Plant Materials Center

Other Propagation Information:
Germinates at high temperatures after stratification (Baskin & Baskin 1988).
Scarification decreases germination (Sorenson & Holden 1974).
Germinates readily in a mixture of sand & loam (Kruckeberg 1996).
Reproduces both sexually by seed and vegetatively by bulb divisions.

Notes: Allium acuminatum is attractive in flower. Difficult to grow from seed and takes a long time to flower. It is short and needs to grow where it is not overtopped at flowering time in late June. Leaves wither by flowering time. Does well on shallow soils. Common names include Hooker’s onion, taper-leaf onion (Skinner et al 2005).

References:
Adair, Robert, Richard C. Johnson, Barbara Hellier, and W.J. Kaiser. 2006. Collecting Tapertip Onion (Allium acuminatum Hook.) in the Great Basin Using Traditional and GIS Methods. Native Plants Journal 7:141-148.

Baskin, Carol C., and Jerry M. Baskin. 1988. Germination Ecophysiology of Herbaceous Plant Species in a Temperate Region. American Journal of Botany 75:286-305.

Chinnappa, C.C., and G.P. Basappa. 1986. Cytology of Some Western Canadian Allium Species. American Journal of Botany 73:529-534.

Davis, Ray J. 1952. Flora of Idaho. Wm. C. Brown, Dubuque, Iowa. 827 pp.

Hitchcock, C. Leo, and Arthur Cronquist. 1973. Flora of the Pacific Northwest. Univ. of Washington Press. Seattle, WA.

Kruckeberg, Arthur R. 1996. Gardening with Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press. Seattle, WA.

Piper, C.V., and R.K. Beattie. 1914. The Flora of Southeastern Washington and Adjacent Idaho. Lancaster, PA: Press of the New Era Printing Company. 296 pp.

St. John, Harold. 1963. Flora of Southeastern Washington and of Adjacent Idaho. 3rd edition. Outdoor Pictures. Escondido, CA.

Skinner, David M., Paul Warnick, Bill French, and Mary Fauci. 2005. More Palouse Forbs for Landscaping. USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center and Palouse Prairie Foundation. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/Docs/More_Forbs_for_Landscaping.pdf

Sorensen, J.T., and D.J. Holden. 1974. Germination of Native Prairie Forb Seeds. Journal of Range Management 27:123-126.

USDA NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 21 September 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

USDA NRCS, Pullman Plant Materials Center. 2005. Seed Weights of Some Palouse Native Species. Pullman Plant Materials Center, Pullman, Washington. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/~pmc_nrcs/Docs/Seed_Weights_Palouse_Native_Species.pdf

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species description from Flora of North America
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium