Yellow Autumn flowering Allium
Mark McDonough (Thu, 22 Sep 2011 18:01:16 PDT)

Mark BROWN <brown.mark@wanadoo.fr> wrote:

Hi Mark, your Allium sounds interesting, do you have a photo of it? In
the past 20 years there's been dozens of new species named in Greece
(including some in Crete and Aegean Islands). I found one paper that
reported there are 85 species in Greece. Many of these species seem
closely allied to the Allium cupani and A. callimischon group, that
produce the early deciduous leaves leaving bare stems and inconspicuous
buds that pop into bloom in late summer to fall, as you described for A.
callimischon; I think the taxonomists in the region might be splitting
hairs of slicing their onions too thinly ;-) You can google "allium
species greece" (without quotes) and get lots of links to separately
published species, some are available as free PDFs with good
descriptions and line drawings or a photo or two, most are unfortunately
for purchase, so it's hard to know more about many of these species
other than a name.

There's a surprising number of fall bloomers from the region, some are
endemic while others range into neighboring areas like Turkey and
Cyprus. Of those Grecian Allium species that I think are late blooming
include: apolloniensis, aegilicum, ritsii, callimischon, chamaespathum,
tardans, dilitatum, eivissanum, pentadactyli, chalkii, rhodiacum,
platakisii, cupani ssp. hirtovaginatum, brussalisii (2008),
archeotrichon, etc. I can't tell you which of these might have yellow
flowers.

Another new one, Allium apergii (described 2009), has yellow to greenish
yellow flowers, blooms July-August. There are other new to new-ish
names, I don't know much about them, nor about when they flower, such as
A. dirphianum, phitosianum, rausii, samothracicum (2000, blooms
June-July), brulloi, runemarkii, lagarophylum, and more.

So, I can't really narrow down your search for an ID very much, other
than offering this context. On the Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum,
there have been photos of late-summer or autumn blooming alliums from
the Aegean region, here are some links:

Links to photos of two fall bloomers, A. tardans & A. chamaespathum
(click on thumbnails to enlarge)
http://srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php/…

Allium autumnale from Cyprus
(click on thumbnail to enlarge)
http://srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php/…

Allium tardiflorum (Israel, thought to be related to A. tardans)
(click on thumbnail to enlarge)
http://srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php/…

Unknown (yellowish) autumn flowering Allium from S Turkey?
http://srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php/…

Mark McDonough
The Onion Man :-)
USDA Zone 5
Massachusetts, USA (near the New Hampshire border)