藠头 jiao tou

Allium bakeri Regel; A. bodinieri H. Léveillé & Vaniot; A. martini H. Léveillé & Vaniot; Caloscordum exsertum Lindley.

Bulbs clustered, narrowly ovoid, (0.5--)1--1.5(--2) cm in diam.; tunic white, sometimes tinged with red, membranous, entire. Leaves subequaling scape, 1--3 mm wide, 3--5-angled, fistulose. Scape lateral, 20--40 cm, terete, covered with leaf sheaths only at base. Spathe 2-valved, persistent. Umbel nearly hemispheric, laxly flowered. Pedicels subequal, 2--4 × as long as perianth, bracteolate. Perianth pale purple to dull purple; segments broadly elliptic to suborbicular, 4--6 × 3--4 mm; inner ones slightly longer than outer. Filaments equal, ca. 1.5 × as long as perianth segments, connate at base and adnate to perianth segments; outer ones subulate; inner ones broadened at base, 1-toothed on each side. Ovary obovoid-globose, with concave nectaries covered by hoodlike projections at base. Style exserted. Fl. and fr. Oct--Nov. 2 n = 24*, 32*.

* Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang.

Cultivated as a vegetable in tropical and subtropical China.