Plant · P-182

Egyptian Walking Onion

Allium × proliferum

Egyptian walking onion earns its name by planting itself: instead of flowers, it grows clusters of small onion bulbs atop a tall stalk, which bends over under their weight and lays them on the ground to root and grow into new plants. Both the bulbils and the small underground bulb taste like a strong onion and make classic pickling onions, and the leaves work like chives in salads - but only picked sparingly, since heavy leaf harvest cuts into how many bulbils the plant makes. Set once in fall, a patch keeps walking and replanting itself for years with no digging, dividing or replanting needed. It tolerates soil from acidic to strongly alkaline, but needs full sun and no shade at all.