Allium acuminatum Hook.

Tapertip onion, Hooker’s onion

This member of the onion family has small, spherical bulbs that smell like onions.

Plants: Plants have a single stem called a scape, up to 1′ (40 cm) tall.

Leaves: Two or three grooved leaves emerge from the ground.

Flowers: An umbel of 10-40 flowers, roughly 2–3″ (5–7.6 cm) around, tops the scape. Each flower is bell-shaped, with six small tepals, each tapering to a point. The flowers are on the boundary between purple and pink, with yellow anthers. Flowers appear from May to July.

Fruits: Three-chambered capsules.

Habitats: Clearings and sunny areas in scrubland and pine woodlands, sagebrush plains, rich meadows, rocky foothills, and mountain slopes; at elevations up to 5000′ (1.5 km).

Edibility: The onion bulbs and leaves are edible, though some are so strong as to be unpalatable. The flowering stems are edible too, and less strong. In southern British Columbia, the Thompson Indians used to gather the plants in the spring or fall, cooking them in pits.

Online References:

Older scientific or horticultural names

Allium acuminatum description by Thomas H. Kent, not updated.

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