Allium spirale Willd.

Bulbs clustered, conical-cylindric, 0.5--1.5 cm in diam., attached to a subterranean, horizontal rhizome; tunic grayish white to yellowish brown or pale lilac-gray, membranous or scarious, usually entire. Leaves linear, spirally tortuous, shorter than scape, 4--6 mm wide, flat, main veins and margins minutely scabrous-denticulate, rarely smooth, apex obtuse. Scape (15--)20--40 cm, terete, subangular, narrowly 2-winged beneath umbel, covered with leaf sheaths only at base. Spathe 2-valved, persistent, apex acuminate. Umbel usually hemispheric, many flowered. Pedicels 1.5--2 × as long as perianth, ebracteolate or a few with a small bracteoles. Perianth pink to pale red; segments with dark red midvein, oblong ovate, 3.5--5.5 × 2--2.5 mm, apex obtuse, sometimes with unequal, very small denticles; outer ones boat-shaped, shorter than inner. Filaments subequal, usually subequaling to slightly longer than perianth segments, connate at base and adnate to perianth segments; outer ones subulate; inner ones narrowly triangular. Ovary broadly ovoid, without concave nectaries. Style exserted. Fl. Jul--Aug. 2 n = 16, 32.

Dry slopes, steppes, stony and gravelly places, sands and loess. Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, N Henan, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi [N Korea, Mongolia, Russia].

Allium austrosibiricum Frizen; A. burjaticum Frizen; A. glaucum Schrader ex Poiret.