Chives, scientific name Allium schoenoprasum, is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaryllidaceae that produces edible leaves and flowers. Their close relatives include the common onions, garlic, shallot, leek, scallion, and Chinese onion.
The shallot is a cultivar group of the onion. Until 2010, the shallot was classified as a separate species, Allium ascalonicum. The taxon was synonymized with Allium cepa in 2010, as the difference was too small to justify a separate species.
An onion, also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classified as a separate species until 2011. Its close relatives include garlic, scallion, leek, and chive.
Scallions are edible vegetables of various species in the genus Allium. Scallions generally have a milder taste than most onions. Their close relatives include garlic, shallots, leeks, chives, and Chinese onions.
The tree onion is a perennial plant similar to the common onion (A. cepa), but with a cluster of bulblets where a normal onion would have flowers. Tree onions are also known as topsetting onions, walking onions, or Egyptian onions. Genomic evidence has conclusively shown that they are a diploid hybrid of the shallot and the Welsh onion (A. fistulosum). However, some sources may still treat the tree onion as A. cepa var. proliferum or A. cepa Proliferum Group.
Allium canadense, the Canada onion, Canadian garlic, wild garlic, meadow garlic and wild onion is a perennial plant native to eastern North America from Texas to Florida to New Brunswick to Montana. The species is also cultivated in other regions as an ornamental and as a garden culinary herb. The plant is also reportedly naturalized in Cuba.
The potato onion is a group of varieties which Maud Grieve calls Allium × proliferum but has also been classed in the Aggregatum Group of Allium cepa, similar to the shallot. It sometimes produces irregular-shaped or round bulbs, which in some old English varieties may be large, although others may be less so.
Allium chinense is an edible species of Allium, native to China, and cultivated in many other countries. Its close relatives include the onion, scallion, leek, chive, and garlic.
Allium moly, also known as yellow garlic, golden garlic and lily leek, Is a species of flowering plant in the genus Allium, which also includes the flowering and culinary onions and garlic. A bulbous herbaceous perennial from the Mediterranean, it is edible and also used as a medicinal and ornamental plant.
Allium tribracteatum, known by the common name Threebract onion, is a species of wild onion found in California.
Allium stipitatum, Persian shallot, is an Asian species of onion native to central and southwestern Asia.
Allium siculum, known as honey garlic, Sicilian honey lily, Sicilian honey garlic, or Mediterranean bells, is a European and Turkish species of plant in the genus Allium. It is native to the regions around the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and grown in other regions as an ornamental and as a culinary herb.
Allium fetisowii is a plant species native to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Xinjiang, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in Central Asia.
Allium tschimganicum is a Central Asian species of onion native to Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. The Flora of China regards this name as synonymous with Allium fetisowiiRegel. However, other sources accept A. tschimganicum as a distinct species.
Allium polyanthum, called the many-flowered garlic, is a Mediterranean species of wild onion native to Spain, France, Italy, Morocco, and Tunisia. It is widely cultivated for its edible and potently aromatic bulbs and foliage.
Eritrichium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae. It contains 78 species. Notable members include Eritrichium howardii and Eritrichium nanum.
Allium is a genus of monocotyledonous flowering plants with hundreds of species, including the cultivated onion, garlic, scallion, shallot, leek, and chives. The generic name Allium is the Latin word for garlic, and the type species for the genus is Allium sativum which means "cultivated garlic".
The leek is a vegetable, a cultivar of Allium ampeloprasum, the broadleaf wild leek. The edible part of the plant is a bundle of leaf sheaths that is sometimes erroneously called a stem or stalk. The genus Allium also contains the onion, garlic, shallot, scallion, chives, and Chinese onion. Three closely related vegetables, elephant garlic, kurrat and Persian leek or tareh, are also cultivars of A. ampeloprasum, although different in their uses as food.
The precise taxonomy of the genus Allium is still poorly understood with incorrect descriptions being widespread. With over 850 species distributed over the Northern hemisphere Allium is the sole genus in the Allieae, one of four tribes of subfamily Allioideae (Amaryllidaceae). New species continue to be described and Allium is both highly variable and one of the largest monocotyledonous genera, but the precise taxonomy of Allium is poorly understood, with incorrect descriptions being widespread. The difficulties arise from the fact that the genus displays considerable polymorphism and has adapted to a wide variety of habitats. Furthermore, traditional classications had been based on homoplasious characteristics. However, the genus has been shown to be monophyletic, containing three major clades, although some proposed subgenera are not. Some progress is being made using molecular phylogenetic methods, and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, including the 5.8S rDNA and the two spacers ITS1 and ITS2, is one of the more commonly used markers in the study of the differentiation of the Allium species.
