Allium tuberosum

Allium tuberosum
Flowering garlic chives
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Monocots
Order:	Asparagales
Family:	Amaryllidaceae
Subfamily:	Allioideae
Genus:	Allium
Species:	A. tuberosum
Binomial name
Allium tuberosum Rottler ex Spreng. 1825 not Roxb. 1832
Synonyms
Synonymy Allium angulosum Lour. 1790, illegitimate homonym not L. 1753 Allium argyi H.Lév. Allium chinense Maxim 1859, illegitimate homonym not G.Don 1827 Allium clarkei Hook.f. Allium roxburghii Kunth Allium sulvia Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don Allium tricoccum auct. non Blanco Allium tuberosum Roxb. 1832, illegitimate homonym not Rottler ex Spreng. 1825 Allium tuberosum f. yezoense (Nakai) M.Hiroe Allium uliginosum G.Don Allium yesoense Nakai Allium yezoense Nakai Nothoscordum sulvia (Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don) Kunth

Garlic chives
Chinese name
Chinese	韭菜
Hanyu Pinyin	jiǔ cài
Wade–Giles	chiu3 ts'ai4
Romanization	kíu chhoi
Yale Romanization	gáu choi
Jyutping	gau2 coi3
Hokkien POJ	kú chhài
Tâi-lô	kú tshài
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese	hẹ
Thai name
Thai	กุยช่าย
RTGS	kuichai
Korean name
Hangul	부추
Revised Romanization	buchu
McCune–Reischauer	puch'u
Japanese name
Kanji	韮
Kana	にら
Revised Hepburn	nira

Allium tuberosum (garlic chives, Oriental garlic, Asian chives, Chinese chives, Chinese leek) is a species of onion native to southwestern parts of the Chinese province of Shanxi, and cultivated and naturalized elsewhere in Asia and around the world.

Allium tuberosum is a perennial plant growing from a small, elongated bulb (about 10 mm, ¹³⁄₃₂ inch, across), tough and fibrous, originating from a stout rhizome. It has a distinctive growth habit with strap-shaped leaves 1.5 to 8 mm (¹⁄₁₆ to ⁵⁄₁₆ in) wide unlike either onion or garlic. It produces many white flowers in a round cluster (umbel) on stalks 25 to 60 cm (10 to 24 in) tall. It grows in slowly expanding perennial clumps, but also readily sprouts from seed. In warmer areas (USDA zone 8 and warmer), garlic chives may remain green all year round. In cold areas (USDA zones 7 to 4b), leaves and stalks completely die back to the ground, and resprout from roots or rhizomes in the spring.

The flavor is more like garlic than chives.

Originally described by Johan Peter Rottler, the species name was validly published by Curt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel in 1825.A. tuberosum is classified within Allium in subgenus Butomissa (Salisb.) N. Friesen, section Butomissa (Salisb.) Kamelin, a very small group consisting of only A. tuberosum and A. ramosum L., which have been variously regarded as either one or two genetic entities.

Originating in the Siberian–Mongolian–North Chinese steppes, but widely cultivated and naturalised. A. tuberosum is currently reported to be found growing wild in scattered locations in the United States. (Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Nebraska, Alabama, Iowa, Arkansas, Nebraska, and Wisconsin). However, it is believed to be more widespread in North America because of availability of seeds and seedlings of this species as an exotic herb and because of its high aggressiveness. This species is also widespread across much of mainland Europe and invasive in other areas of the world.

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Wikipedia