Nodding Onion (Allium cernuum)
Overview of Nodding Onion, Silver Springs Canyon, Sacramento Mountains, Otero Co., NM.
Photograph by Wynn Anderson.
Two views of flowers of Nodding Onion, Sacramento Mountains, NM. Photographs by Wynn
Anderson.
- Common English Names: Nodding Onion
- Common Spanish Names: Cebolla de Montaña
- Scientific Name: Allium cernuum (AL-ee-um SIR-new-um)
- Family: Alliaceae (Onion Family), earlier placed in Amaryllidaceae and
Liliaceae
- Geographic Range: In mountains of Trans-Pecos Texas and adjacent Coahuila,
Mexico, north to north to British Columbia, Canada, and east to Georgia.
- Description: Small bulbs often clustered, with a brownish membranous outer
coating and producing several long, thin, channeled, green leaves. One or more flowering scapes,
erect but strongly recurved at the end, hold drooping umbels of pink flowers in summer. Full sun to
partial shade.
- Ethnobotany: Bulb is edible.
Last Update: 31 Aug 2013
