Allium cyaneum Regel var. brachystemon Regel; A. kansuense Regel; A. tibeticum Rendle.

Bulbs clustered, cylindric, 0.3--0.5 cm in diam.; tunic dark brown, fibrous, subreticulate at base, rarely laciniate. Leaves linear, shorter than scape, 2--5 mm wide, flat. Scape (5--)15--40 cm, terete, covered with leaf sheaths only at base. Spathe 1-valved, deciduous. Umbel hemispheric, densely many flowered. Pedicels subequal, shorter than to equaling perianth, ebracteolate. Perianth blue; segments ovate to ovate-oblong, 6--10 × 3--4.5 mm, apex obtuse; inner ones usually slightly longer and wider than outer, margin usually irregularly remotely denticulate. Filaments equal, 1/2--2/3 as long as perianth segments, connate and adnate to perianth segments for ca. 1 mm, usually all broadened at base, sometimes 1-toothed on each side. Ovary subglobose, with concave nectaries covered by short, hoodlike projections at base. Style shorter than to subequaling ovary, not exserted; stigma punctiform. Fl. and fr. Jul--Sep. 2 n = 32, 48*.

Forest margins, scrub, slopes, meadows; 2400--5000 m. S Gansu, S Ningxia, E and S Qinghai, SW Shaanxi, W Sichuan, SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sikkim].