December 2020 • Nebraskaland 47
few hundred fl owering plants.
The onion grows in a small prairie on our South Dakota
farm where in most springs there are less than 50 fl owering
stems. In 2013, the year after the severe drought of 2012, my
wife, Grace, saw a strange phenomenon and called me from
the farm: "There's a thousand little purple onions blooming
in the prairie."
"Interesting," I thought.
The next spring, when the number of fl owering onions had
returned to normal, I investigated. On my hands and knees,
I parted the prairie grasses and searched for non-fl owering
onions near fl owering plants. Sure enough, with leaves
merely a few inches tall, they were far more abundant than
fl owering plants. The Plains onion was more abundant in
our prairie, and likely elsewhere, than their blooms typically
indicate.
The 2012 drought set the stage for 2013's prodigious onion
bloom by stressing the prairie grasses, killing some and
shrinking the roots of others. With plentiful spring rain and
released from competition with the still recovering grasses,
the onion bloomed in abundance and littered the soil with its
long-lasting seed. Prairie management and other aspects of
climate might also entice the onion, as well as other spring
wildfl owers, to bloom. Abundant soil moisture, for example,
likely stimulates fall leaf growth and photosynthesis
providing the onion with plenty of energy for fl owering the
next spring. Well-timed prescribed fi re and livestock grazing
in prairies can also stress grasses, reducing competition for
the onion.
In the rough–and-tumble prairie, the Plains onion does not
roll the dice when it comes to fl owering and seed production,
which requires extensive energy. In unfavorable years, many
plants survive as a bulb only with no above-ground growth,
or they sprout only leaves and no fl owers. The wise little
onion waits patiently for favorable conditions, and only then
does it send forth its beautiful blooms. If lucky, you might be
there to see them.
N
The Plains onion's species name perdulce translates from
Latin to "sweet" in reference to its fragrant fl owers.
Plains onion bulbs were a food source for Native Americans.
They were eaten raw, fried, roasted or boiled in soups.
The seeds of Plains onion, six per papery capsule, ripen to a
shiny black in midsummer.
