Species Alliums being edible?

Shmuel Silinsky gardenbetter@gmail.com
Sun, 07 Apr 2013 11:30:28 PDT
Thanks for all the responses!

Allium  aschersonium is commonly available here in nurseries, which is
where I got mine. Conversely, I have never seen "common" Alliums like A
gigantium here - go figure.

My  aschersonium was visited by a huge assortment of bees and wasps while
blooming and seems to have set a lot of seed. My understanding is that
clean seed can be sent to the US without permits. I got that info from the
"Don't Pack a Pest" brochure at US Customs in JFK Airport. That was a few
years ago and things may have changed, but if anyone wants a few seeds, let
me know.

I want to plant it as a potential crop for semi-arid areas. Nhu, I really
appreciate the 4 year figure. It gives me an idea of what to expect.  I
would not think of collecting from the wild, except seeds. Interesting that
I have only seen these tall Alliums (about 1 meter) individua;lly in the
wild - never in groups like the smaller ones.

By the way, Allium ampeloprasum is also native here. There are some ssp or
varieties, one of which is leek - I wonder what happens if leek is not
harvested and let to form a bulb?  Another is what they call elephant
garlic - the catalog of Nichol's Nursery in Oregon says they introduced it
as a crop and gave it the elephant garlic name. I have not seen it wild
here, but would sure like to. : )

Shmuel Silinsky
Jerusalem, Israel
zone 9


On Sat, Apr 6, 2013 at 6:44 PM, Colleen <silkie@frontiernet.net> wrote:

> Thanks for the warning Peter.  Actually I have not been too concerned about
> invasiveness up to now because of the harshness of our climate.  "Invasive"
> has usually meant that the plant had enough vigor to actually grow here.
> However, I don't take the warning lightly because the climate is changing
> so
> I am not being as cavalier as before and will take steps to plant whatever
> I
> may get with invasiveness in mind, thank you.  For instance a bit of mint I
> planted took years and years to develop a good enough plan to spread, at
> all.  Of course then it did a very good job and I am now pulling mint :)
>
> Colleen
> NE Calif.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org]
> On Behalf Of Peter Taggart
> Sent: Saturday, April 06, 2013 2:49 PM
> To: Pacific Bulb Society
> Subject: Re: [pbs] Species Alliums being edible?
>
> some of these allium species can be quite invasive... be cautious if you
> have conditions in which they might spread.
> Peter (UK)
>
>
> 2013/4/5 Colleen <silkie@frontiernet.net>:
> > > Roland,
> > >
> > > Where did you get your starts?
> > >
> > > Colleen
> > > NE Calif.
> > >
> >
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