Nodding Onion
Growth Habit
GeophytePropagation
Seed Treatment and Storage: easy to grow and a prolific germinator, but seed is only viable for one year
Biocultural Value
Native American groups throughout nodding onion's range have employed the plant's spicy bulbs and leaves as a vegetable and flavoring. The Cherokee also used the juice to treat colds, sore throats, hives, kidney problems, and liver complaints. The Cherokee, Isleta, Kwakiutl, and Quinault prepared a poultice of the bulbs and applied it to various parts of the body to ease fevers, croup, skin infections, sores, and pleurisy.
Wildlife Value
Cellophane bees (Colletes spp.) are one of nodding onion's principal pollinators and visit the flowers for both pollen and nectar. Additional floral visitors include leafcutter bees (Megachile spp.), small resin bees (Heriades spp.), sweat bees (Lasioglossum spp.), bumble bees (Bombus spp.), soldier beetles (Chauliognathus spp.), tumbling flower beetles (Mordella spp.), and syrphid flies (Allograpta spp.)
Location
Mundy Wildflower GardenCultivation
Description
Stem 30-70cm, terete or angled, sharply curved at tip; bulbs 1-2cm diameter, narrow, ovoid, clustered on rhizomes, tunics membranous. Leaves 10-20 x 0.5-0.7cm, 4-6, basal, flat. Flowers cup-shaped, 30-40 in a pendulous umbel, 3-5cm diameter; spathes to 1cm, 2; pedicels 8-18mm, bending upwards once fruit develops; tepals 4-6mm, white, deep pink or maroon; stamens exserted; ovary with 6 crests persisting on fruit.
Source of plant
Krissy Boys, Lazy S's Farm Nursery
