Allium munzii

Munz’s Onion

FWS Focus

Overview

Characteristics
Overview

Munz’s onion is a bulb-forming perennial herb. It was listed as endangered in 1998 as threats to the species included urban and agricultural development and clay mining activities. Those impacts have been reduced due to the implementation of the Western Riverside County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan and other preceding HCPs. However, invasive non-native plants, wildland fire and climate change climate change
Climate change includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Though there have been previous periods of climatic change, since the mid-20th century humans have had an unprecedented impact on Earth's climate system and caused change on a global scale.

Learn more about climate change
are still potentially impacting the species.

Scientific Name

Allium munzii
Common Name
Munz's onion
FWS Category
Flowering Plants
Kingdom

Location in Taxonomic Tree

Genus

Identification Numbers

TSN:

Characteristics

Characteristic category

Physical Characteristics

Characteristics
Color & Pattern

Each flower has six white or white-with-red flower segments which become red with age.

Size & Shape

It produces a single cylindrical leaf and, depending on rainfall and age of the plant, an individual flower stalk half a foot to 1.2 feet tall with 10 to 35 flowers.

Characteristic category

Habitat

Characteristics
Habitat

It is generally found on clay soils within areas of grassland and sage scrub vegetation.

Characteristic category

Life Cycle

Characteristics
Life Cycle

About the only time the species is detectable and identifiable is when it is flowering, generally between March and May during non-drought years.

Reproduction

It can reproduce by forming seeds or through bulb division.

Geography

Characteristics
Range

It occurs along the southern edge of the Riverside-Perris area in western Riverside County, California.

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