多籽蒜 duo zi suan

Allium simile Regel; A. tschimganicum B. Fedtschenko.

Bulb solitary, globose, 1--2.5 cm in diam.; tunic grayish black, papery, splitting at apex. Leaves broadly linear, much shorter than scape, 2--15 mm wide. Scape 30--70 cm, terete, covered with leaf sheaths only at base. Spathe 2-valved, persistent. Umbel hemispheric to globose, densely many flowered. Pedicels subequal, 2--3 × as long as perianth, ebracteolate. Perianth stellately spreading, recurved and twisted after anthesis, purple-red; segments linear to linear-lanceolate, (4--)5--7 × 1--1.2 mm, without strong midvein. Filaments equal, 3/4--4/5 as long as perianth segments, connate at base and adnate to perianth segments; outer ones subulate; inner ones with broadened part subsquare and with 1 or 2 teeth on each side, rarely triangular and entire. Ovary subglobose, minutely tuberculate, with cracklike nectaries at base; ovules 4--6 per locule. Fl. and fr. Apr--Jun. 2 n = 16.

Among shrubs in meadows, exposed places. W Xinjiang (Xinyuan Xian) [Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan].

One of us (Kamelin) believes that plants with basally entire inner filaments represent a new, as yet undescribed species; however, further study is required to ascertain their true status.