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Natural
History Nodding Onion (Allium cernuum) Richard Hebda INDEX for Native Plants This text was originally published in Coastal Grower (formerly The Island Grower) in Victoria, British Columbia. For subscription information, please call Susanne Steele at the Coastal Grower at 250-478-0825. Our modern spice cupboard contains many different spices from far flung corners of the earth. In early times however, people were restricted to using what the local flora had to offer. One of the tastiest and most widely used native herbs and foods of British Columbia was the nodding onion. Nodding onion grows as a bulbous perennial often forming small clumps. The bulb of nodding onion is long and narrow with a flat plate at the base which gives rise to true roots. As in all true bulbs, the succulent tissue consists of swollen leaf bases. The top of the bulb tapers gradually into the fleshy stem. Two or three narrow, mostly channelled and slightly keeled leaves stretch upward and diverge slightly from the stem. The fresh leaves are only about 0.2 to 1.0 cm (0.05 to 0.4") wide, but up to 20 cm (8") long. They are strongly onion-scented and onion-flavoured. A rounded stalk rises to nearly 50 cm (20") from the top of the bulb and droops downward at its tip so that the flower head faces earthward. This characteristic feature has give the nodding onion its common name and its botanical name of cernuum which means 'nodding' in Latin. The name of the genus, Allium, is the same as the Latin name for garlic (Allium sativum). Two papery bracts surround the base of the flower cluster. Often 10 or more blossoms crowd together in the flower cluster. Each flower consists of six white to pink tepals (three petals and three sepals) which are separated to the base. Six stamens poke just out of the mouth of the flower. In the center hides a pistil with a three-lobed green ovary. Flowering occurs from May to August depending on the location. The mature papery seed capsule releases hard black seeds. Nodding onion occurs widely throughout the southern two-thirds of our province from the coast to Alberta. There are also populations in the southern Peace River country. This widespread onion ranges as far east as New York state and south to Texas and Georgia. In general, nodding onion thrives in dry open sites such as dry woodlands and meadows as well as rocky knolls and cliffs especially on the coast. Nodding onions make excellent garden plants for dry sunny sites. They are best grown from seed or bought from specialist nurseries or garden centres. In the fall, sow the seed just below the soil surface in a mixture of peat moss and sandy loam, and leave them to germinate over the winter. Once the seedlings are large enough to handle, thin them or separate out and plant in suitable location. Good sites include shallow soils over rock or the front of a perennial bed. These native onions will even grow well in a pot. Nodding onions are excellent wild plants for dry interior gardens. Eventually the bulbs will increase into clumps. Divide them in the late summer and early fall while they are dormant and replant as soon as you can. Once you have them growing they will need very little care. Native peoples of British Columbia enjoyed wild nodding onions greatly. Often they were simply collected and washed in the wild and eaten raw. They could also be taken home and fried in grease. In the southern Okanagan onions were dug during spring just before flowering, being careful not to mistake them for death camas (Zygadenus venenosus). These onions were often cooked in steam pits overnight whereupon they turned sweet and brown. Some people strung them up and dried them for the winter too. So if you are looking for a spicy native plant for your garden try nodding onion. Come and see nodding onion at the Native Plant Garden of the Royal British Columbia Museum where they have settled in well and even spread. For more information contact Richard Hebda at the Royal British Columbia Museum.
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