@JinTX gave me a good idea, what if we all share & submit our local wild Allium canadense here? Perhaps we can compare & contrast different varieties, Then select together for the best traits in our Allium canadense Landrace? I’m thinking maybe we can improve bulb size, more flowers or arial bulblets, & select for longer leaves? Technically all parts of the plant are edible!
For a breakdown of Allium canadense varities, this is a fantastic source :
I also have phylogenetic trees of the Subgenus Amerallium, where Alllium canadense is nested. Maybe we can do interspecies hybrids too!
Maybe, the sepals do look green & probably would have White petals right?
I also just keep thinking, how many populations are hybrids between varieties (it’s probably all on a spectrum)?
Wow, I was just looking at my patch of allium canadense earlier today. It is just about to flower. It is way way overcrowded and has found its way here and there as well. I followed that FNA link and as usual the photo of the flowers does not look just like mine. But then I read this,
"tepals erect or spreading, white to pink or lavender, lanceolate to elliptic, ± equal, withering in fruit and exposing capsule, midribs somewhat thickened, margins entire, apex obtuse to acute;".
Although I had to look up what tepals are. I guess it explains why I was never really sure what mine is, it has a lot of variation. Mine has some variation in leaves, with some slightly larger and with a blue tint but that might just be difference in size or age. I’ll post some photos when the flowers open.
I looked that up and the photos look quite a bit like mine, if I remember correctly. I’ll let you decide when you see the pictures. Flowers should be open in just a day or so.
This next picture shows the “fibers.” This is as much as I’ve ever seen. Not thick and hairy. Those I dug up from saturated soil were routinely clear of this. I think it may rot off easily so the older bulbs don’t show it. (I replaced the picture to show the size)
Any idea how much of bulb size is simply age? I’m sure they get larger as they age. Probably a matter of selecting for size at the end of their first season. Are these biennial?
I don’t know how quickly they reach full size but I would assume, based on what I have seen digging up old clumps, the bulbs stop increasing in size after the first year and put all their energy into the flowers and/or bulbils.
So if there are any that seem to have extra large bulbs there is a good chance that is mainly genetics and those could be used for improvement.
I had no idea that there were different named varieties of these things. Mine also have a combination of bulbils and flowers. The seeds are a bit bigger than most onions and easy to sprout but don’t have much of a chance without help because the bulbils drop and rapidly fill up a space, seedlings just get crowded out.
Much easier to grow than I expected when I first found them. I put them in the garden, and they have taken over a small section, I’ll probably have to banish them from the garden proper like I did with garlic. If cross pollination with any other onion is possible at all, it won’t happen on its own because the bloom time doesn’t match. Although this year there is a possibility some of the smaller more crowded ones may bloom a bit later and coincide with the earlier walking onions, looks like it will be just a matter of days. If I get flowers on both at the same time, I’ll try to trade some pollen between them.
My walking onions are currently opening their blossoms, so there will definitely be some overlap. The cultivated onions in their 2nd year will probably be late.
Might it also be a different species (within the same section)?
Interesting… I haven’t thought of that yet but it’s probably the case
Probably, outcrossing are fantastic! But the little bulblets are also edible raw so why not select for both? I like Allium vineale bulblets for this reason, I can just eat the whole “berry-cluster” with mulberries & enjoy a sweet & spicy snack.
From an outcrossing perspective it’s an advantage, from a culinary perspective it’s an option.
Ah… that’s probably why the bulblet trait is still maintained & selected for naturally.
Altho you could plant the bulb later to help sync up flowering time?
If you are trying to cross Allium canadense with Allium cepa, it’s very unlikely to happen because they belong to very different subgenera & seperate evolutionary lineages.
Wild Canadaian Meadow Garlic (Allium canadense) = Subgenus Amerallium of the MAN Clade (Lineage I)
VS
Cultivated Garden Onion (Allium cepa) = Subgenus Cepa of the CRABCPR Clade (Lineage III)
They are very phylogenetically apart within the Allium genus, which you really think about it functions like a whole seperate Tribe Allieae.
That being said, give it a try, more Allium hybrids the better!
