Nevius' Garlic, Nevius' Onion: Allium nevii (Synonym: Allium douglasii var. nevii)

Nevius' onion is an attractive wildflower with 2 basal leaves and a single leafless scape giving rise to a cluster of flowers at its tip. The stem is usually held higher than the leaves. The leaves are either convex in cross section and 2-8 mm wide or strongly flattened and up to 15 mm wide. The leaves usually persist until flowering. The scape is usually 20-30 cm high.

Two or three broadly ovate bracts with short-pointed tips subtend the umbel. The bracts are 5-7 nerved. The umbel is several to many-flowered with individual flowers on thin pedicels which are 2-3 times longer than the tepals. The 6 tepals range from 6-10 mm long and are narrowly lanceolate with pointed tips. The coloration is pink or rarely white. The midribs of the tepals are prominent. The stamens are as long as or longer than the perianth with oblong, obtuse, or acute anthers.

variety columbianum: Leaves narrow, channeled and often not curved. Scape thickened below the umbel but not constricted. Plants along the Washington & Idaho state line from Kootenai to Idaho Counties Idaho through Spokane County, Washington to northern Whitman County in southeastern Washington. Also found in Sander County, Montana.

varitey constrictum: Leaves narrow, channeled and often not curved. Scape thickened below the umbel but constricted between the umbel and the swollen upper part of the scape. Plants of Upper Grand Coulee, Grant County, WA.

variety douglasii: Leaves wide and flat, often curved. Scape not thickened below the umbel. Plants found from southern Whitman and central Walla Walla Counties in southeastern Washington south to Wheeler, Grant and eastern Umatilla Counties in Oregon.

variety nevii: Leaves narrow, channeled and often not curved. Scape not thickened below the umbel. Plants of the eastern slope of the Cascade Mts. from Kittitas County in Washington south to northern Oregon.

Nevius' garlic is found in grasslands, sagebrush desert, and ponderosa pine forests in shallow, winter wet soils.

Nevius' garlic is found wholly east of the Cascade Mountains, from Kittitas County, WA east to Spokane County and south to northern and northeastern Oregon.

Close-up images of the inflorescence of Nevius' onion observed along a jeep road several miles north of Box Canyon Road, Simcoe Mountains Unit of the Klickitat Wildlife Area......May 10, 2021.

Nevius' garlic as seen along Forest Service 35 about one-half mile uphill from the southern forest boundary on Table Mountain, Wenatchee National Forest...........June 4, 2013. Note that the basal leaves are much narrower than those of the similar Allium douglasii.

Nevius' garlic observed in vernally moist areas along What Road near the DNR and Wenatchee National Forest boundary north of Cleman Mountain, Yakima County, WA.......May 24, 2019.

Nevius' onion observed in mass bloom in vernally moist swales in meadows at Brooks Memorial State Park......May 11, 2020.

Additional close-up photos of Nevius' onion growing in the drying streambed of Swale Creek about one mile west of Harms Road, Klickitat County, WA.........May 8, 2010.

Nevius' onion blooming at Brooks Memorial State Park near Satus Pass, Washington..........May 11, 2014.

Nevius' onion blooming at left in vernally moist meadows along the main east-west access road through the Simcoe Mountains Unit of the Klickitat Wildlife Area..........May 28, 2017. The photo at right shows a close-up of the inflorescence of Nevius' onion in bloom on vernally moist balds at Brooks Memorial State Park off US 97 near Satus Pass......May 13, 2019.

Nevius' onion blooming in vernally moist scablands about one-third of a mile northwest of Tumwater Butte, Simcoe Mountains Unit of the Klickitat Wildlife Area.....May 22, 2022.

Nevius' onion from the Columbia Hills, Columbia River Gorge to the north of The Dalles, OR..........June 1, 1997.