Allium victorialis


Allium victorialis, commonly known as victory onion, Alpine leek, and Alpine broad-leaf allium is a broad-leaved Eurasian species of wild onion. It is a perennial of the Amaryllis family that occurs widely in mountainous regions of Europe and parts of Asia.
Some authors consider certain East Asian and Alaskan populations as constituting subspecies platyphyllum within the species Allium victorialis. Recent sources recognize this group as a distinct species, called Allium ochotense.

General description

Allium victorialis attains a height of and forms a sheathed bulb about the thickness of a finger and long. Leaves are broad elliptical or lanceolate. Flowers are whitish green.

Distribution

Allium victorialis is found widely across mountain ranges Europe, as well as the Caucasus and the Himalayas.

Nomenclature

The specific epithet victorialis comes from the German Siegwurz, and it earned this name having been "worn as an amulet, to be as safeguard against the attacks of certain impure spirits," by Bohemian miners among others.

Uses

The plant, in past centuries in certain mountainous regions of Europe, "was cultivated as a medicinal and fetish plant".