Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum (L.) J. Gay:
Costa Rica (Mesoamerica)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Allium porrum L.:
Guatemala (Mesoamerica)
Honduras (Mesoamerica)
United States (North America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

United States

Origin: Exotic

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

Plants c. 1 m tall. Bulb ovoid, 3-4 cm broad, scaly. Scape arising from the centre of the bulb. Leaves 6-12, linear, 1-2 cm broad, flat, keeled. Umbels globose, many flowered. Spathe long beaked. Tepals lanceolate, 4-5 mm long, white to light pink, each with a green vein, outer surface scabrid. Outer stamens as long as the tepals; filaments entire, linear; inner stamens longer than the tepals, filaments broader, tricuspidate, lateral cusps long, thread-like. Style included.

Bulb solitary, cylindric ovoid to subglobose, sometimes bearing bulbels; tunic white, membranous, entire. Leaves broadly linear to linear-lanceolate, shorter than scape, 1--5 cm wide or more, slightly conduplicate, abaxially keeled. Scape 60--80 cm or more, terete, covered with leaf sheaths for ca. 1/2 its length. Spathe 1-valved, deciduous; beak long. Umbel globose, densely many flowered. Pedicels subequal, several times as long as perianth, bracteolate. Perianth white to pale purple; segments with green midvein, suboblong, 4.5--5 × 2--2.3 mm, apex acute; outer ones denticulate along midvein abaxially. Filaments slightly longer than perianth segments, connate at base and adnate to perianth segments; outer ones narrowly triangular to linear-triangular, margin denticulate toward base; inner ones oblong, as wide as perianth segments for ca. 2/3 their length, 1-toothed on each side, teeth with apex elongated into a twisted, filiform cusp much longer than anther-bearing cusp. Ovary ovoid-globose, with transversely convex nectaries near middle of septa. Style exserted. Fl. and fr. May--Jul. 2 n = 32.

Cultivated as a vegetable [native to SW Asia and Europe; also widely cultivated].

Foodplant / parasite
telium of Uromyces ambiguus parasitises Allium ampeloprasum var. babingtonii

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: NNA - Not Applicable

Rounded Global Status Rank: GNR - Not Yet Ranked

These species are introduced in Switzerland.

Leek is cultivated as an annual in vegetable gardens in Guli Bagh, Swat and elsewhere; it has been found growing along field borders.