Species Alliums being edible?
Shmuel Silinsky (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: