Allium drummondii
Family: Liliaceae
Description: Leaves and inflorescence arising from a bulb. Leaves usually 32 or more, linear, up to 45 cm (18 inches) tall, with 10-25 flowers; flowers in umbels (pedicels all originating from the same point); pedicels of different lengths. Sepals and petals look alike; white up to 1 cm 3/8 inches) long. This plant is a bulb forming perennial.
Field Identification: Smell like onion or garlic when bruised.
Color variable: white, pink, lavender, or reddish-purple. At a glance may look like Crow Poison. The inflorescence bracts of A. drummondii have one vein, whereas those of A. runyonii have 3 or more veins.
Plant Trivia: Due to the similarity of Allium species, it is not recommended that one eats these. Some species are poisonous. A. drummondii was named in honor of Thomas Drummond, from Scotland, who made extensive collections of plants in the Edwards Plateau are o Texas in the 1830’s. He spent twenty-one months working the area between Galveston Island and the Edwards Plateau, especially along the Brazos, Colorado, and Guadalupe rivers. His collections were the first made in Texas that were extensively distributed among the museums and scientific institutions of the world. He collected 750 species of plants and 150 specimens of birds. Drummond had hoped to make a complete botanical survey of Texas, but he died in Havana, Cuba, in 1835, while making a collecting tour of that island.
Occurrence: Common on a variety of soils in prairies, openings and waste places and along roads on heavier sands, clay, or caliche. This species occurs in South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, and northeastern Mexico.
Bloom Period: April – Nov
Plant Use: Gathered by Native Americans; contain inulin, a sugar humans cannot digest. Bulbs must be heated for a long time to convert inulin into digestible sugar. Ornamental, Pocket prairie, Shortgrass meadow.
Dichotomous Key to the Genus Allium: Plants of the Texas Coastal Bend by Roy L. Lehman, Ruth O’Brien & Tammy White.
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