健蒜 jian suan

Allium robustum var. alpestre Karelin & Kirilov.

Bulb solitary, subglobose, 1--2 cm in diam.; tunic blackish, papery, quickly lost; inner layers yellowish white. Leaves 2--4, linear, much shorter than scape, 2--10 mm wide, smooth. Scape 40--60 cm, terete, slightly ribbed, covered with leaf sheaths only at base. Spathe 2/3 as long as to slightly shorter than umbel, apex shortly acuminate. Umbel hemispheric to subglobose, densely many flowered. Pedicels equal, 1.5--2(--3) × as long as perianth, ebracteolate. Perianth stellately spreading or rotate, recurved and twisted after anthesis, red to purple-red; segments with dark purple midvein, linear-lanceolate to obovate-oblanceolate, 5--5.5 × ca. 2 mm, apex subobtuse. Filaments equaling perianth segments, connate at base and adnate to perianth segments; outer ones subulate; inner ones with triangular base, ca. 2 × as wide as outer ones. Ovary applanate-globose, minutely tuberculate, with small, concave nectaries at base; ovlues 4 or more per locule. Fl. and fr. May--Jun.

Scrub, steppes, stony and dry slopes; 600--1000 m. N Xinjiang (Qinghe Xian, Tacheng Xian) [E Kazakhstan].