Flora of New Zealand Series

Fig. 24B

Plant without onion smell. Bulb subglobose, 1-3 cm diam., with numerous sessile offset bulbs; tunic smooth, white. Leaves 20-40 cm × 5-15 mm, dull, light green, flat. Scapes 20-60 cm high, terete, hollow; spathe-values 2, connate below, red-tinged. Flowers 8-20, umbellate, 1-1.5 cm long, ± 1.5 cm diam., campanulate, fragrant, dull white; segments with greenish base and reddish midvein; pedicels erect or spreading, > flowers. Capsule 5-8 mm long, 3-lobed. Seeds ± 2 mm long, many, sharply angled, minutely wrinkled.

N. North Auckland - Waipu; Auckland - Auckland City, Whakatane; Gisborne - Kaiti; Hawkes Bay - Hastings; Wellington - Wanganui, Palmerston North, Lower Hutt, Wellington City. S. Nelson City; Canterbury - Christchurch, Timaru. Garden weed; troublesome and spreading in some districts.

(Probably native to S. America, now an introduced weed in many countries)

First record: Kirk 1899; 225, as "Allium fragrans". Allan (N.Z. J. Agric. 48, 1934, 46) suggests the plant recorded was in fact Allium triquetrum. The next record of Nothoscordum is Allan 1940: 305, as "N. fragrans (L.) Kunth [sic.]."

First collection: Whakatane, ex Mr Pritchard, Horticulture Division, 1944 (); the exact date of collection was not given, the plant was cultivated at Wellington and the specimen made on 29.11.1944.

FL. 10-12.

Formerly known in N.Z. as N. fragrans auct. non (Vent.) Kunth.

In general aspect N. inodorum resembles an Allium but lacks the characteristic onion smell.

It was almost certainly introduced as an ornamental, is occasionally still seen in cultivation and can be troublesome in older gardens in scattered localities. N. inodorum reproduces both by offset bulbs and by seeds and in some overseas countries is a serious weed in gardens and cultivated land.