Sixteen Species New for Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Great Lakes Region, or North America

Allium ramosum L. Alliaceae (often included in Amaryllidaceae) Fragrant-flowered garlicSignificance of the Report.Apparently the first collection of this non-native forb from outside of cultivation in North America north of Mexico.Previous Knowledge.The herbaceous perennial Allium ramosum is native to somewhat dry open habitats in China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Russia (Xu and Kamelin 2000) and is cultivated for culinary use, sometimes followed by escape, in those countries and in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (Seregin and Korniak 2013).Although it was cultivated in Europe by the middle of the 18th century (Stearn 1944), its escape to non-cultivated settings there was not detected until the past half-century (Seregin and Korniak 2013).It is thought to be closely related to Allium tuberosum Rottler ex Spreng.(Xu and Kamelin 2000), which is cultivated in North America (as "Chinese chives") for culinary use and has escaped in parts of the central United States (Kartesz 2015).Both species may be grown as ornamentals (Davies 1992).Allium ramosum has often been considered to include A. odorum L. in synonymy, the nomenclature and typology being rather confused (Stearn 1944;Xu and Kamelin 2000).Most works do not list a vernacular name in English; "fragrant-flowered garlic," however, is given by Bailey and Bailey (1976), although the plant lacks a sizable edible bulb like that of garlic (Allium sativum L.).Xu and Kamelin (2000) reported the Chinese vernacular name as "ye jiu."Discussion.Allium ramosum was found between an active railroad track and a long-abandoned branch track in Duluth, Minnesota.It had about 100 flowering shoots irregularly distributed within an approximately 15 m 2 sunny, moderately drained site, with Asclepias syriaca L., Bromus inermis Leyss., and Tanacetum vulgare L. the most abundant species near it.In both 2020 and 2021 abundant seed was produced.At the times the flowering specimens were collected, the species was not seen in other open habitats in the area, or in cultivation on the nearest residential properties as visible from the streets.Diagnostic Characters.Shoots were glabrous, in small clusters, growing from very narrow bulbs connected by a rhizome.Bulb tunics became weakly fibrous and somewhat lustrous.The herbage had a strong alliaceous odor.A few plants flowered earlier and were much taller than most of the population.Their scapes were up to about 1 m tall and 6 mm diameter near the base, tapering to 3 mm diameter near the tip, with a single spiral rib.The scape's fistula was about 3 mm diameter near the base, tapering to about 1 mm diameter near the tip.The leaves were erect, attached within the basal one-eighth of the scape, up to 8 mm wide, channeled but not abaxially keeled, entire, and twisted along their 4-5 dm length.Leaves had a central cavity with a cross-sectional shape like that of the whole blade, 2-3 mm wide and ca.0.2 mm high nearer the base, becoming internally solid distally.Umbels were erect, congested-fasciculate, about 5 cm in diameter, and lacked bulbils.The perianth was bright white, most of the tepals having a midvein that was abaxially greenish or dark reddish.Tepals were about 9 mm long, 3 mm wide, and naviculate very near their tip.Filaments were about 5 mm long and adnate to the perianth near their connate bases, white, and unappendaged.Anthers were about 1 mm long, with yellow pollen.The style was white on a bright green tuberculate ovary that lacked crests.Living flowers were broadly campanulate and had a very evident pleasant "floral" fragrance.For illustrations see Choi and Oh (2011), Seregin andKorniak (2013), or POWO (2022).The shorter plants had their umbels still contained by their bracts on the date the first flowering material was collected.When these were in flower two weeks later, their scapes were up to 65 cm tall, with leaf and other stem dimensions proportionately less than those of the taller plants.Umbels and flowers were much the same as those of the early flowering plants, but with fewer flowers per umbel.Fruiting pedicels were about 2.5-3 cm long.There were typically about 40-50 fruits per umbel on tall plants, 20-25 per umbel on short plants, the pericarp dehiscing; the two seeds per carpel were about 4 mm long, irregularly angular, black, and lustrous.Stearn (1944) illustrated variation in fruit shape.The umbels became closer to hemispherical as the fruits grew.Somatic chromosome numbers of 16 and 32 have been reported for this species (Xu and Kamelin 2000;Choi and Oh 2011).Seedling root tips were fixed, stained with lacto-aceto-orcein, squashed, and observed at 1000× with both bright-field and phase-contrast illumination.Seedlings from both the tall-early and the short-late plants had 16 condensed chromosomes per mitotic anaphase daughter set.Allium tuberosum differs, in part, by having leaves that are internally solid throughout and by coming into flower after A. ramosum has finished flowering (Stearn 1944).In Duluth, cultivated A. tuberosum was still flowering in late September, in a place that appeared to have a warmer microclimate (directly in front of a sunny southwest-facing masonry wall) than the collection site did.Xu and Kamelin (2000) described leaves of A. ramosum as abaxially keeled, in contrast to those of A. tuberosum, but among Duluth plants we observed the reverse, consistent with Stearn (1944).Stearn (1944) contrasted the flowers of A. tuberosum as having somewhat shorter tepals that spread more widely than those of A. ramosum, and stamens almost as long as the tepals, and our observations were consistent with these.We judged the floral fragrance to be similar in both