Nodding Onion (allium cernuum)
The Nodding Onion, also known as sweet onion or barbecuing onion, is a wild plant native to western Canada. Nodding Onions are perennial plants with elongated pinkish colored bulbs, often grown in clusters, and nodding bunches of pink flowers that bloom from May to July. The plant reproduces from seed or bulb division. The bulbs, young leaves and flowers are all edible, either raw or cooked, and have a mild onion flavor, with the leaves tasting similar to chives.
Bulbs like the Nodding Onion are an important traditional food of Interior Salish and neighboring indigenous peoples whose territories covered Southern British Columbia and the upper northwestern coast of the United States. Nodding Onions were usually harvested before flowering, the leaves braided and the bulbs cooked in earth ovens. Nodding Onions are seriously threatened in western Canada due to loss of habitat caused by housing and industrial development as well as from the impact of environmental pollution and invasive species. As the plants are lost, so is the historical knowledge and practice of gathering the plants practiced for generations by First Nations people. Traditional gathering sites have been lost to large housing subdivisions, big box store shopping centers, and even university campuses, although not without strong protests by First Nations and environmental groups. Protecting the Nodding Onion is important not only for the continued existence of the plant itself but also, perhaps more importantly, for the continued existence of the historical knowledge and practices associated with the gathering of this wild food.
Through the addition of the Nodding Onion and other native wild foods to the Canadian Ark of Taste, we hope to raise awareness of the threats our important wild foods face and to help people to understand the importance of protecting wild, natural spaces and the edible biodiversity found across Canada. In addition, these foods are extremely important to the health and traditional cultural practices of the First Nations peoples and without them we lose a vital part of our Canadian heritage and history.
Where to source:
Seeds
Alberta
Bedrock Seed Bank
780 785 7366
Box 608, Sangudo, AB
bedrock@telusplanet.net
http://www.bedrockseedbank.com/
Wild About Flowers>
403 933 3903
P.O. Box 1257
Turner Valley, AB
http://www.wildaboutflowers.ca/
British Columbia
VanDusen Botanical Garden
5251 Oak Street
Vancouver, BC
http://www.plantexplorers.com/
Seed and Plant Sanctuary Society for Canada
PO Box 465
Ganges, Salt Spring Island, BC,
info@seedsanctuary.com
http://www.seedsanctuary.com/
(become a member of the seed saving society and get access to multiple seeds from their seed bank)
Bulbs
Botanus Inc.
604 513 0100 or at 1-800-672-3413
PO Box 3184
Langley, BC V3A 4R5
service@botanus.com
http://www.botanus.com/pages/
(this is a Canadian mail-order bulb website, please see the website for shipping and ordering details)
Fraser’s Thimble Farm
250 537 5788
175 Arbutus Rd
Salt Spring Island, BC
thimfarm@telus.net
http://www.thimblefarms.com/bulb.html
Pacific Rim Native Plant Nursery
604 792 9279
PO Box 413
Chilliwack, BC
plants@hillkeep.ca
www.hillkeep.ca
(individuals can schedule visits to nursery, see website for detailed driving directions)
Acorus Restoration Native Plant Nursery
519 586 2603
#722 6th. Concession Road
R.R. #1
Walsingham, Ontario
info@ecologyart.com
http://www.ecologyart.com/
Seed Information*
Seed Propagation
Flowering Time: June-July
Fruit Ripening Time: August
Seed Collection Time: September
*Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team Society, Native Plant Propagation Guidelines, 2013 http://www.goert.ca/propagation_guidelines/forbs/allium_cernuum
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