Slo.: ronati luk - Habitat: close to Adriatic Sea shore; bushy, semiruderal ground on the shore of a small lake, flat terrain, cretaceous clastic rock (flysh) bedrock; moist place; exposed to direct rain; elevation 5 m (16 feet); average precipitations 1.000-1.100 mm/year, average temperature 12-14 deg C, submediterranean phytogeographical region. Comment: We all know onions and garlic (genus Allium) from our kitchens. But few know how these plants bloom and whether or how many brothers and sisters they have in their botanical genus. In Slovenia we have 25 different species of this genus growing in wild. Flowers of almost all of them are beautiful. Allium roseum is not an exception. It is a common Mediterranean plant growing all around the Mediterranean Sea, but it is quite rare in my country growing exclusively in extreme southwest part of the state near Adriatic Sea shore on flysh ground of Istria peninsula. Flowers of the inflorescence of Allium roseum are arranged in a half-spherical umbel (inflorescence with the pedicels arising +/- from a common point, like the struts of an umbrella), which can have up to 7 cm in diameter and may contain up to 35 tenderly pink or sometimes almost white individual flowers. In many cases also some bulbils are intermixed in the head. Ref.:(1) M. Blamey, C. Grey-Wilson, Wild Flowers of the Mediterranean, A & C Black, London (2005), p 485.(2) I. Schnfelder, P. Schnfelder, Kosmos Atlas Mittelmeer- und Kanarenflora, Kosmos, (2002), p 54.(3) A. Martini et all., Mala Flora Slovenije (Flora of Slovenia - Key) (in Slovenian), Tehnina Zaloba Slovenije (2007), p 743. (4) N. Jogan (ed.), Gradivo za Atlas flore Slovenije (Materials for the Atlas of Flora of Slovenia), CKSF (2001), p 30.
Slo.: poletni luk - Habitat: grassland, skeletal karst ground, calcareous bedrock; open, sunny, warm, dry place; elevation 70 m (230 feet); average precipitations 1.500-1.600 mm/year, average temperature 12-13 deg C, submediterranean phytogeographical region. - Substratum: soil. - Comment: Genus Allium in Europe includes well over 100 species (Ref.:5), 25 species and subspecies can be found in Slovenia. All plants in this genus have quite similar habit and they have the same characteristic smell on onion or garlic. Most of them are edible. Their determination to species level is not always simple due to the fact that specific traits of leaves and flowers are important. Unfortunately, with most of the species the leaves are already weathered away when the plants bloom. One can almost never see leaves and flowers at the same time. Consequently, most of traditional dichotomous keys are hardly usable. The best books (like Ref.:6) provide two keys, one based on leaves only properties and another one based on flower properties.Allium ampeloprasum is a Mediterranean floral element relatively seldom found in Slovenia. It is restricted to the warmest parts of the country near Adriatic Sea. Its beautiful round inflorescence may have up to 9 cm in diameter and contain up to 500 individual flowers. The cultivated leek is believed to be derived from this species.Ref.:(1) A. Martini et all., Mala Flora Slovenije (Flora of Slovenia - Key) (in Slovenian), Tehnina Zaloba Slovenije (2007), p 743. (2) M. Blamey, C. Grey-Wilson, Wild Flowers of the Mediterranean, A & C Black, London (2005), p 487(3) D. Aeschimann, K. Lauber, D.M. Moser, J.P. Theurillat, Flora Alpina, Vol. 2., Haupt (2004), p 1066.(4) R. Domac, Flora Hrvatske (Flora of Croatia) (in Croatian), kolska Knjiga, Zagreb (1994), p 393.(5) M.A. Fischer, W. Adler, K. Oswald, Exkursionsflora fr sterreich, Liechtenstein und Sdtirol, LO Landesmuseen, Linz, Austria (2005), p 1061.