7. Allium stellatum Ker Gawl. (wild onion, pink wild onion)

Pl. 99 f, g; Map 401

Bulbs 1–4 cm long, narrowly elongate and tapering into the aerial stems, the outer coat smooth and membranous to papery. Aerial stems 10–60 cm long, not inflated, sometimes arched or hooked near the tip during development, but almost always erect at flowering. Leaves basal or nearly so, 10–40 cm long, 1–5 mm wide, flat, linear, not tapering to a petiole, the base pale green to white or light pink when fresh. Umbels with 25–85 flowers. Bulblets absent. Flower stalks much longer than the flowers. Perianth spreading widely, the sepals and petals 4–7 mm long, elliptic, the tips pointed or less commonly blunt, purplish pink to pink. Fruits 3–5 mm long, obovoid, 3-lobed, each lobe with a pair of hornlike, triangular projections near the top. 2n=14. July–November.

Scattered in the Ozark and Ozark Border Divisions, locally north to Lincoln, Boone, and Pettis Counties (central U.S. and adjacent Canada locally west to Washington and east to North Carolina). Glades and exposed bluffs, openings of dry upland forests, mostly on calcareous substrates; also on rocky roadsides.

This is the characteristic summer-blooming wild onion in the Ozarks. For a discussion of the relationship between it and the less common A. cernuum, see the treatment of that species.