Allium ampeloprasum

Allium ampeloprasum is a member of the onion genus Allium. The wild plant is commonly known as wild leek or broadleaf wild leek. Its native range includes southern Europe, southwestern Asia and North Africa, but it has been cultivated and naturalized in many other countries.

Allium ampeloprasum has been differentiated into five cultivated vegetables: leek, elephant garlic, pearl onion, kurrat, and Persian leek.

Etymology The specific epithet ampeloprasum derives from the Greek ampelos ("vine") and prason ("leek"), literally meaning "vine-leek" or "leek of the vineyard".

Description Wild populations produce bulbs up to across. Scapes are round in cross-section, each up to tall, bearing an umbel of as many as 500 flowers. Flowers are urn-shaped, up to across; tepals white, pink or red; anthers yellow or purple; pollen yellow.Gleason, H. A. & A.J. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of the Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada (ed. 2) i–910. New York Botanical Garden, Bronx.

Distribution and habitat Allium ampeloprasum is an ecologically diverse species complex and the progenitor of several key cultivated varieties, including the common leek (A. porrum L. sensu stricto), characterized by its robust "pseudostem," and the A. kurrat Schweinf, which is grown for its slender leaves. Despite their physical differences, these forms remain closely related to, and fully interfertile with, the wild tetraploid A. ampeloprasum, which is widely distributed in the Mediterranean basin.

The plant's native range is southern Europe to southwestern Asia and North Africa, including all countries bordering the Black, Adriatic, and Mediterranean Seas from Portugal to Egypt to Romania. In Russia and Ukraine, it is considered invasive except in Crimea, where it is native. It is also native to Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, Iran and Iraq.

It is considered naturalized in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Czech Republic, the Baltic States, Belarus, the Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, China, Australia (all states except Queensland and Tasmania), Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Haiti, the United States (southeastern region plus California, New York State, Ohio and Illinois), Galápagos, and Argentina.

The species may have been introduced to Britain by prehistoric people, where its habitat consists of rocky places near the coast in south-west England and Wales.CHRISTOPHER D. PRESTON, DAVID A. PEARMAN, ALLAN R. HALL (2004) Archaeophytes in Britain Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 145 (3), 257–294 , p. 264

Conservation The plant is protected by law in Israel as well as York County, Virginia, where it is commonly known as the "Yorktown onion".

Cultivation Allium ampeloprasum is the source of several vegetables, most notably: Leek (var. porrum) Elephant garlic or great-headed garlic (var. ampeloprasum) Pearl onion (var. sectivum) Kurrat (var. kurrat),Grubben, G.J.H. & Denton, O.A. (2004) Plant Resources of Tropical Africa 2. Vegetables. PROTA Foundation, Wageningen; Backhuys, Leiden; CTA, Wageningen. Egyptian leek or salad leek. This variety has small bulbs, and primarily the leaves are eaten. Persian leek (A. ampeloprasum ssp. persicum). A cultivated allium native to the Middle East and Iran, grown for culinary purposes and called tareh in Persian. The linear green leaves have a mild onion flavor and are eaten raw, either alone, or in food combinations. Some sources (especially archeological ones) refer to each of these as a separate species, but they are now united as A. ampeloprasum.

In culture The plant is mentioned as shaḥm el-arḍ in an 11th-century Mishnah commentary.

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Allium ampeloprasum

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