About Allium rhizomatum Wooton & Standl.
Allium rhizomatum, commonly known as spreading wild onion and red flower onion, is a plant species. It is native to the United States (southern Arizona’s Cochise and Santa Cruz Counties, southern New Mexico’s Catron, Grant, Hidalgo, Socorro, Sierra and Eddy Counties, and western Texas’ Brewster and Jeff Davis Counties) and Chihuahua, Mexico. It typically grows in dry, grassy habitats at elevations between 1200 and 2200 m. This species spreads via underground rhizomes, with new bulbs forming up to 3 cm away from the parent plant. Its bulbs are narrowly ellipsoid, reaching up to 3 cm in length, but rarely exceed 1 cm in width. The flowers can grow up to 10 mm across; their tepals are white with red central veins and do not have glands. The ovary is oblong to elongate and lacks a crest, while anthers are yellow or pink, and pollen is yellow or white. Some authors have treated A. rhizomatum as the same species as A. glandulosum, which occurs in central and southern Mexico. However, A. glandulosum has deep red flowers, a rounded ovary, and glands on its sepals.
