Food Plants International - Plant Fact Sheets Allium tuberosum - Chinese Chives

Edible portion : Flowers, Leaves, Root, Bulb, Herb, Vegetable

An onion family plant. It is a herb which keeps growing year after year. It can be 40 cm high. It grows in clumps. These onions have rhizomes but no real bulbs. The leaves are long and grass like, and flat and solid. They are 15-30 cm long and about 5 mm wide. The young leaves are erect but the mature leaves bend gracefully down. The blades of the leaves are not folded length-wise, as are those of garlic and leek. Flowers are white. The flowers are produced at the top of a flower stalk which grows from the underground stem. The flower head is round due to the small flowers being on the same length stalks and arising from the same point. The flower stalk can be 45 cm long. A dense clump of plants is produced.

A temperate plant. They are native to eastern Asia. Seeds are rarely formed in the lowland tropics. It is naturalised in S China. In Indonesia it grows up to 2,200 m above sea level. It suits hardiness zones 7-10. In Yunnan.