Showy Milkweed / Asclepias speciosa
Southern Bald Ibis / Geronticus calvus
Ladybug larva on Showy Milkweed
Hawk in Fish Creek Park - juvenile Northern Goshaw…
Blue Lettuce / Lactuca tatarica
Bold and beautiful
They can't see me
Juvenile Swainson's Hawk
Shakin' all over
Osprey family in the city
Loved by Monarch butterflies
Beauty in the forest
Don't call me 'Gopher'
Popular with the flies
Swainson's Hawk male, light phase
Swainson's Hawk female, dark-phase
Cream and wine-coloured
A cute little cluster
Lovage / Levisticum officinale
A fun find
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Sainfoin / Onobrychis viciifolia
Breaking through the storm clouds
Mom and her spotted twins
Gathering in the forest
Sowthistle
The arrival of fall
American Kestrel, Falco sparverius
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Yesterday's find
Merlin
Chinook arch over Calgary
Rusty Gilled Polypore / Gloeophyllum sepiarium
Yesterday's summer hail
Red River Hog / Potamochoerus porcus
Chilean Flamingo
Tattered and torn - and still beautiful
Ornamental Spurge / Euphorbia polychroma (Cushion…
Clay-colored Sparrow / Spizella pallida
Sleeping down at the pond
Grasshopper Sparrow / Ammodramus savannarum - OR i…
Red-edged petals
Needed a change of colour
Hollyhock buds
Such cute little hands and feet
Cow Parsnip / Heracleum maximum
Red-necked Grebe
White-crowned Sparrow / Zonotrichia leucophrys
The purity of white
Flowers of spring
Le Conte's Sparrow
Baby fluff
Striped Coralroot / Corallorhiza striata
Snake's head fritillary / Fritillaria meleagris
Finely iridescent
Red Baneberry
Canada Goose
03 Blowing in the wind
The joy of spring
Periwinkle / Vinca minor
First day out in the big, wide world
Colour
Matching colours
A bird of many colours
Busy parent
See also...
Keywords
Authorizations, license
-
Visible by: Everyone -
All rights reserved
-
198 visits
Egyptian Walking Onion
![Egyptian Walking Onion Egyptian Walking Onion](https://cdn.ipernity.com/200/76/04/42347604.03c37632.640.jpg?r2)
![](https://s.ipernity.com/T/L/z.gif)
Two mornings ago, on 30 June 2016, I just made it in time for a botany visit to our main naturalist leader's home and garden. He and his wife have an amazing garden, full of so many kinds of flowers, including a good variety of native plants. One of my favourites is Showy Milkweed - love the cluster of individual flowers growing on a rounded head. These plants have spread over a lot of the front garden. All they need now is for Monarch butterflies to fly a bit further north than they usually do and discover this little bit of butterfly heaven. In 2012, though, it was very unusual, as people were seeing a few of these amazing butterflies in Alberta, including in Calgary. I even got to see and photograph a few Monarch caterpillars in this garden, for the very first and last time.
Our leader also has a large vegetable garden. One thing that always fascinates me is the Egyptian Walking Onion. Each one seems to take on its own artistic shape and I love to photograph these - both fascinating and quite beautiful.
"Tree onions, topsetting onions, walking onions, or Egyptian onions, Allium ×proliferum, are similar to common onions (A. cepa), but with a cluster of bulblets where a normal onion would have flowers. Genomic evidence has conclusively shown that they are a hybrid of the common onion and the Welsh onion (A. fistulosum). However, some sources may still treat the tree onion as A. cepa var. proliferum or A. cepa Proliferum Group. Tree onion bulblets will sprout and grow while still on the original stalk, which may bend down under the weight of the new growth and take root some distance from the parent plant, giving rise to the name "walking onion". It has been postulated that the name "Egyptian onion" is derived from tree onions being brought to Europe from the Indian subcontinent by the Romani people.
The phenomenon of forming bulblets instead of flowers is also seen in garlic and other alliums, which sometimes may also be referred to as top onions or tree onions. The bulblets are usually marble-sized, between 0.5 cm to 3 cm in diameter.
Many tree onions are very strong flavoured, although some cultivars are relatively mild and sweet. The underground bulbs are particularly tough-skinned and pungent, and can be quite elongate, like leeks, or in some types may form bulbs up to 5 cm across. Young plants may be used as scallions in the spring, and the bulblets may be used in cooking similarly to regular onions, or preserved by pickling." From Wikipedia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_onion
www.egyptianwalkingonion.com/
In the afternoon of this day, we experienced a huge rain and hail storm. Fortunately, it cleared up in time to go on Don Stiles' annual evening Bluebird route trip. I always look forward to going with Don on his nest box route, checking on a few of the boxes and finding either Bluebird or Tree Swallow eggs or babies. Don records all the information about numbers and dates, and also demonstrates how he carefully bands the young birds. Thanks, as always, Don, for an enjoyable evening outing and thank you for all the many, many years (must be somewhere around 35?) you have spent helping to preserve our beautiful Bluebirds. We all enjoyed seeing the various other bird species during the evening, too.
Our leader also has a large vegetable garden. One thing that always fascinates me is the Egyptian Walking Onion. Each one seems to take on its own artistic shape and I love to photograph these - both fascinating and quite beautiful.
"Tree onions, topsetting onions, walking onions, or Egyptian onions, Allium ×proliferum, are similar to common onions (A. cepa), but with a cluster of bulblets where a normal onion would have flowers. Genomic evidence has conclusively shown that they are a hybrid of the common onion and the Welsh onion (A. fistulosum). However, some sources may still treat the tree onion as A. cepa var. proliferum or A. cepa Proliferum Group. Tree onion bulblets will sprout and grow while still on the original stalk, which may bend down under the weight of the new growth and take root some distance from the parent plant, giving rise to the name "walking onion". It has been postulated that the name "Egyptian onion" is derived from tree onions being brought to Europe from the Indian subcontinent by the Romani people.
The phenomenon of forming bulblets instead of flowers is also seen in garlic and other alliums, which sometimes may also be referred to as top onions or tree onions. The bulblets are usually marble-sized, between 0.5 cm to 3 cm in diameter.
Many tree onions are very strong flavoured, although some cultivars are relatively mild and sweet. The underground bulbs are particularly tough-skinned and pungent, and can be quite elongate, like leeks, or in some types may form bulbs up to 5 cm across. Young plants may be used as scallions in the spring, and the bulblets may be used in cooking similarly to regular onions, or preserved by pickling." From Wikipedia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_onion
www.egyptianwalkingonion.com/
In the afternoon of this day, we experienced a huge rain and hail storm. Fortunately, it cleared up in time to go on Don Stiles' annual evening Bluebird route trip. I always look forward to going with Don on his nest box route, checking on a few of the boxes and finding either Bluebird or Tree Swallow eggs or babies. Don records all the information about numbers and dates, and also demonstrates how he carefully bands the young birds. Thanks, as always, Don, for an enjoyable evening outing and thank you for all the many, many years (must be somewhere around 35?) you have spent helping to preserve our beautiful Bluebirds. We all enjoyed seeing the various other bird species during the evening, too.
- Keyboard shortcuts:
Jump to top
RSS feed- Latest comments - Subscribe to the comment feeds of this photo
- ipernity © 2007-2024
- Help & Contact
|
Club news
|
About ipernity
|
History |
ipernity Club & Prices |
Guide of good conduct
Donate | Group guidelines | Privacy policy | Terms of use | Statutes | In memoria -
Facebook
Twitter
Sign-in to write a comment.