Prairie Onion

Featured
Allium textile
Allium textile

Prairie onion. Photo by Penny Dodd.

Ethnobotany

Found on the dry prairie, at 5–25 cm tall with white to pale pink flowers, the prairie onion is a small cousin to the nodding onion. The bulb’s mesh-like outer covering gave rise to its species name textile.

Wilkinson cautions that eating too much prairie onion can cause stomach upset (15), but the “great quantities of small onion” that Captain Meriwether Lewis collected was, in fact, Allium textile. (Johnston 23)

This plant is not currently in the garden, but we hope it is coming soon.

Botany

To be added soon.

References

  • Johnston, Alex. 1987. Plants and the Blackfoot. Occasional Paper No. 15., Lethbridge Historical Society, AB. 

  • Wilkinson, Kathleen. 1999. Wildflowers of Alberta: A Guide to Common Wildflowers and Other Herbaceous Plants. University of Alberta Press and Lone Pine Publishing, AB.

WildflowerPenny Dodd and Marion JankunisGalt Museum & ArchivesComment