strange onion flower head

[Medbury Gardens]

For 20 years ive been growing California Red onion for seed and never had i seen a onion with flowers such as this,there's two plants that have done it what ever it is.

Anyone got ideas

[Worth1]

MY GOD MAN you need to get that out of your garden as fast as you can.
It is called a Bicumtus Serumtus and is the result of an extra terrestrial dumping hazardous waste on your garden.

this happens all of the time in New Mexico out near Roswell.

What I think it really may be is the onion putting on new onions at the top of the mother plant sort of.

the reason I say this is because Agave do something similar on their blossom shoots.

They will shoot up and at some places they put on flowers and others they put out new pups way up in the air.
Supposedly the shoot dies, falls over new seeds sprout and the pups take root.

This is a WILD guess.
The UFO story is about as good.

Worth

[dustdevil]

Probably got a stray seed. Look up Egyptian Walking Onions.

[Stepheninky]

Looks like a type of what really old people call a walking onion or tree onion or top onion. I have some myself in the garden. They come back every year and the top sets can get bigger in time. Usually the first year you do not have a lot of top sets just the blooms like you have.

As far as I know the walking types started in Canada and became pretty popular in the 1790's.

The reason they are called walking onions is they put on sets at the tops and those eventually get heavy and fall/ lean to the ground where they can make a new walking onion plant. The young green shoots in spring can be used like chives or shallot tops, the top sets can be used to plant more of them or in a few years are the size of and can be used like a pearly onion. The onion part that is in the ground is similar in taste to a shallot. If you pull it up to get those leave some unmolested plants and they will keep growing on there own.

While they sound like they might spread all over your garden thats not true at all, I usually just till around them when I do my normal tilling and they do not spread. So they are pretty easy to keep in one place like the corner of a garden.

Usually I have always seen them planted in clumps and not rows. As far as I know they are not real common and not something you will find in many gardens or at many box stores so I would say find a good home for them and just let em grow, they are very maintainable and require little to no care.

They are also kinda ornamental in a way as well so you couldd always use that as an excuse to grow them in the wife's flowerbed to save garden space lol .

Anyways hope you enjoy them and hope this infor I posted helped

[Worth1]

Here is a walking tree that I heard about some time ago.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sourc...cZEJAg&cad=rja



The world is full of strange stuff.

Worth

[Stepheninky]

Oh forgot to mention that the first year they bloom more and they become more established after that they bloom less and tend to put on more top sets which look wild and better than the flowers do, they can make seed but its rare and they mostly propagate from the top and bottom sets.

Egyptian Walking Onions have a purple or reddish cast to them from all the pictures I have seen so my guess is these are just walking onions like what I have planted. Either way they they are pretty cool plants. They can get as tall as three foot in time and the hollow onion tops can get as big a 3 inches around

[Stepheninky]

Here is a pic from online I might step out latter today and take a pic in the garden but remember it is Dec so its middle of winter here

[Stepheninky]

Here is a couple of pics of mine they do not look like muck now because it is Dec 20th and we still got little bits of snow here and there but they are still green so they are pretty darned hearty

[Medbury Gardens]

Thanks guys for your reply's.

I already grow Egyptian Walking Onions or Egyptian tree Onions (photo taken three days ago) and as far as i know they dont cross,ive grown both for the last twenty years and there's been no crossing so far that i can tell.
Over the last few years ive been working on breeding from bulbs that have formed on some of the Californian red onion seed heads,not sure if this is now showing up by way of these strange flower heads or not.

I'll leave the plants a bit longer and see what happens,i'll keep this thread updated.

[dustdevil]

Stepheninky,

Very interesting photo. That "walking" onion even wears a shoe

Dust

[Stepheninky]

Originally Posted by dustdevil

Stepheninky,

Very interesting photo. That "walking" onion even wears a shoe

Dust

lol trying to be fair an show size comparison its a size 10

[remy]

Alliums can make odd babies sometimes. Allium 'Hair' is a famous one. Some people love its oddness. Others think it is ugly.
http://www.robsplants.com/plants/AlliuVinea.php
Remy

[Medbury Gardens]

Originally Posted by remy

Alliums can make odd babies sometimes. Allium 'Hair' is a famous one. Some people love its oddness. Others think it is ugly.
http://www.robsplants.com/plants/AlliuVinea.php
Remy

Thanks remy
That looks a lot like it,the only diifference been there's no flowers on the ones in that link

[remy]

Originally Posted by Medbury Gardens

Thanks remy
That looks a lot like it,the only diifference been there's no flowers on the ones in that link

No, no flowers, just wanted to show a weird mutation.
I attended a talk with a plant breeder, and he noted how often times when the odd plant(or plants) is found in a growing field, they are often pulled and tossed without any thought as to whether or not it has potential value. Many times, they are ugly, but sometimes not. To most growers though they don't care either way. If it is off type, it goes because that is not what they are selling. So though uncommon, it happens, but we don't hear about it.
Another odd allium is A. schubertii. The flowers come out at different lengths.
http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl...m%20schubertii
Remy

[Medbury Gardens]

ive never heard of A. schubertii before,but boy now we starting to see a real likeness in that last link remy.
The only thing of concern now is pollen cross contamination if or when the flowers on the mutated plants open,what do you think remy??.

Worth - thanks for your Bicumtus Serumtus theory,talking of UFO's,its funny you should mention it but............................... .....................................