Bulb ovoid-globose, 1.5--2 cm in diam.; outer tunic gray, quickly lost; inner layers milk white, subpapery, entire. Leaves 2 or 3, glaucous, broadly linear, much shorter than scape, 1--1.5(--2) cm wide, margin dark green or whitish red, papillose-denticulate, apex gradually attenuate. Scape 20--30(--40) cm, terete, covered with leaf sheaths only at base. Spathe 2(or 3)-valved, laciniate, partly persistent, apex acuminate. Umbel hemispheric, many flowered. Pedicels ca. 3 × as long than perianth, ebracteolate. Perianth stellate, recurved and withered after anthesis, white; segments with green or purple-violet, fine midvein, narrowly elliptic, 4.5--5 × 1.5--2 mm, apex subacute. Filaments subequaling perianth segments, connate and adnate to perianth segments, base broadened; inner ones nearly 2 × as wide as outer. Ovary ovoid, without concave nectaries at base; ovules 4--6 per locule. Fl. May. 2 n = 16.

In FRPS, a broad species concept was adopted, with Allium tulipifolium and A. roborowskianum treated as synonyms of A. decipiens Fischer ex Schultes & J. H. Schultes, under which name all specimens in Chinese herbaria are filed. In the present account, a narrow species concept is adopted, with A. tulipifolium and A. roborowskianum treated separately from A. decipiens which was described from Ukraine and does not occur in China.

Scrub, slopes, steppes; 600--1000 m. NW Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Russia].