Onion flower - Allium cepa

Common Name :	Onion, Bulb onion, Common Onion.
Botanical Name :	Allium cepa
Family :	Amaryllidaceae
Bangla Name :	Peyaj ful (পেয়াজ/পেঁয়াজ ফুল).
Photo Taken :	Bangladesh

Today I am going to write about a different flower. It is different because more or less we know about this, but hardly anyone has seen the flower! I am talking about the Onion flower today. Onion is a very important spice almost in every culture and region. And in Bangladesh it is a must spice (except during some special religious festival). We do not need to grow this in town, we can obtain this onion from any groceries or supermarkets. That's why similar to many other native vegetables we didn't see the flowers of them.

In Bangladesh we call Onion as Peyaj. In our country we may have different dialects for this, but the root of all those is that one, Peyaj. In English it may have some other names like Bulb onion or Common Onion, but at the end it simply Onion. Binomial name is Allium cepa (hopefully now you can remember the name from your school's biology book). It belongs to the plant family Amaryllidaceae. [In Bangladesh the Rain Lily is also known as 'Peyaj ful' that belongs to the same plant family]

Onion (Allium cepa) is a bulbous herbaceous plant. This is a biennial plant (grows in two years). But for cultivation purpose we grow it as annual. The plant is bulbous at the bottom (that we use as onion). The roots are just below the bulb of the plant. Leafs are long, slim, and having hollow inside. The plant can grow at maximum 18 inches in height. The whole plant is having a nice smell when squeezed.

The flowers of Onion (Allium cepa) bloom as a cluster. Flower comes at the second year (that's why biennial). As we only cultivate this commercially that's why we don't see the flowers often. Small flowers are showy and having whitish color. Cluster appears atop of the long stalk (that is also hollow). The stalk can be up to 2 feet in height.

We use to cultivate the Onion (Allium cepa) in a large scale in some part of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh it is known as a winter crop. We mostly use the bulb (onion) as a spice. But during the season the leafs of the onion are available at market (known as spring onion). In Bangladesh people mainly use the spring onions in non cooked dishes (i.e. salad, smashed vegetables, etc).

Apart from vegetable uses, Onions (Allium cepa) have lot of other uses. It has remedy for flu and cold. Also it can be used as a material during beatification. Onion can be used against hair falling and to cure scalp problems. More can be found from wikipedia.

Photos of Onion flower (Allium cepa) were taken from the following location:
 1) January 2015: Munsiganj, Bangladesh.


This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://icflora.blogspot.com/