Allium tenuissimum var. nalinicum Shan Chen.

Bulbs clustered, subcylindric; tunic grayish violet or grayish brown to blackish brown, membranous, apex splitting; inner layers usually pinkish lilac. Leaves shorter than scape, 0.5--1(--2) mm wide, semiterete to subterete, smooth, rarely scabrous along ribs and at margin. Scape 10--35(--50) cm, terete, finely angled, smooth, covered with leaf sheaths for ca. 1/4 its length. Umbel hemispheric to fascicled, laxly flowered. Pedicels subequal, 1.5--3 × as long as perianth, smooth, rarely scabrous along angles, ebracteolate. Perianth white or pinkish white, rarely purple-red; segments with dark purple, fine midvein; outer ones ovate-oblong to broadly so, 2.8--4 × 1.5--2 mm, apex obtuse; inner ones obovate-oblong, 3--4.2 × 1.8--2.7 mm, apex truncate to truncate-obtuse. Filaments ca. 2/3 as long as perianth segments, connate at base and adnate to perianth segments; outer ones ± subulate; inner ones with basal ca. 2/3 broadened, ovate-orbicular, entire. Ovary subglobose, without concave nectaries at base. Style not exerted. Fl. and fr. Jul--Sep. 2 n = 16*.

Allium tenuissimum differs in only a few characters from A. elegantulum, which was treated as a synonym of the former in FRPS.

Slopes, pastures, sandy places; near sea level to 2000 m. Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, N and S Jiangsu, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, N Xinjiang (Altay Shan), Zhejiang [Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia].