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Nodding Onion

Allium cernuum

Nodding onion earns its name twice: the flower stalk bends into a sharp crook just below the head so the pink umbel hangs face down, then straightens as the seed ripens to hold the capsules upright. It is a true onion, and bulb, leaves and flowers are all edible — the leaves strongly and pleasantly oniony in a salad, the bulbs strong enough that they are mainly used as a flavoring. The flowers are small and shallow and pull in an unusually wide range of short-tongued bees and wasps at a point in midsummer when many prairie forbs are between bloom periods. It stays tidy at about a foot, builds slow clumps from bulb offsets, and self-sows gently without becoming a nuisance. Deer and rabbits leave it alone, the usual advantage of an onion. Note that alliums are toxic to dogs, which are unusually susceptible to the genus.

Family

Amaryllidaceae

Type

wildflower

Lifespan

perennial

Height

1–1.5 ft

Spacing

0.25–0.5 ft apart

Light

sun

Soil moisture

moist

Soil pH

alkaline, neutral

Bloom

June, July, August

Bloom colors

white, pink

Wildlife value

butterflies, hummingbirds, pollinators

Landscape uses

border, naturalizing

Native states

AL, AR, AZ, CO, DC, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, NE, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI, WV, WY