Allium tulipifolium Ledeb.

In FRPS, a broad species concept was adopted, with Allium tulipifolium and A. roborowskianum treated as synonyms of A. decipiens Fischer ex Schultes & J. H. Schultes, under which name all specimens in Chinese herbaria are filed. In the present account, a narrow species concept is adopted, with A. tulipifolium and A. roborowskianum treated separately from A. decipiens which was described from Ukraine and does not occur in China.

Bulb ovoid-globose, 1.5--2 cm in diam.; outer tunic gray, quickly lost; inner layers milk white, subpapery, entire. Leaves 2 or 3, glaucous, broadly linear, much shorter than scape, 1--1.5(--2) cm wide, margin dark green or whitish red, papillose-denticulate, apex gradually attenuate. Scape 20--30(--40) cm, terete, covered with leaf sheaths only at base. Spathe 2(or 3)-valved, laciniate, partly persistent, apex acuminate. Umbel hemispheric, many flowered. Pedicels ca. 3 × as long than perianth, ebracteolate. Perianth stellate, recurved and withered after anthesis, white; segments with green or purple-violet, fine midvein, narrowly elliptic, 4.5--5 × 1.5--2 mm, apex subacute. Filaments subequaling perianth segments, connate and adnate to perianth segments, base broadened; inner ones nearly 2 × as wide as outer. Ovary ovoid, without concave nectaries at base; ovules 4--6 per locule. Fl. May. 2 n = 16.

NW Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Russia].

Scrub, slopes, steppes; 600--1000 m.

Allium tulipifolium is an Asian species of wild onion native to Xinjiang, Kazakhstan and Altay Krai. It is found at elevations of 600–1000 m.

Allium tulipifolium has round to egg-shaped bulbs up to 20 mm in diameter. Scape is up to 40 cm tall, round in cross-section. Leaves are flat, waxy, up to 2 cm across, much shorter than scape, with a pink or dark green margin. Umbel has many flowers, the tepals white with dark green or purple mid-veins.