Allium victorialis
Species of flowering plant
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Some authors consider certain East Asian and Alaskan populations as constituting subspecies platyphyllum within the species Allium victorialis. Recent sources recognize this group as a distinct species, called Allium ochotense.
General description
Allium victorialis attains a height of 30–45 cm (11.8–17.7 in) and forms a sheathed bulb ("root-stalk") about the thickness of a finger and 5–8 cm (2.0–3.1 in) long. Leaves are broad, elliptical or lanceolate. Flowers (perianths) are whitish green.
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Distribution
Allium victorialis is found widely across mountain ranges Europe, as well as the Caucasus and the Himalayas.
Nomenclature
The specific epithet victorialis comes from the German Siegwurz (Root of Victory), and it earned this name having been "worn as an amulet, to be as safeguard against the attacks of certain impure spirits," by Bohemian miners among others.
Uses
The plant, in past centuries in certain mountainous regions of Europe, "was cultivated as a medicinal and fetish plant". The plant known as pukusa to the Ainu people in northern Japan, an important food source, had been classed as A .victorialis subsp. platyphyllum, but recent genetics classify it under its own species, Allium ochotense.