Allium inutile Makino

Plants without onionlike or garliclike odor. Bulb solitary, ovoid or obovoid to subglobose, 1.1--1.3 cm in diam.; tunic pale brown, membranous, longitudinally veined. Leaves to 30 cm, semiterete, midvein raised abaxially. Scape 18--28 cm × 1--1.5 mm, terete, ribbed, covered with 3--5 leaf sheaths at base; ribs with short, thick, triangular teeth. Spathe 1-valved, pale brown, 9--12 mm, membranous, longitudinally striate when dry, persistent. Umbel 4--7-flowered. Pedicels unequal, 1.5--4 cm, thickened in fruit, with short teeth along ribs. Perianth stellately spreading, white; segments linear-oblanceolate, 5--7 mm, 1-veined, connate at base into a 1--1.5 mm tube. Filaments 2--2.5 mm, connate to middle and adnate to perianth segments, entire. Ovary flattened globose; ovules 3 or 4 per locule. Style 1--1.5 mm; stigma (2 or)3-lobed.

Forests. Anhui (Chu Xian) [Japan].

Caloscordum inutile (Makino) Okuyama & Kitagawa.

Allium inutile is a species of wild onion native to Honshu Island in Japan and to Anhui Province of southeastern China.

The scientific name translates as "useless onion," in reference to the fact that this one of the few members of the 900-member genus Allium lacking the characteristic onion or garlic scent.

Allium inutile produces a single round to egg-shaped bulb up to 13 mm across. Scape is up to 30 cm tall, round in cross-section but with ribs along the edges. Leaves are tubular, up to 30 cm long. Umbel is rather small, with only 4-7 white flowers.