Xie Bai

Allium macrostemon Bunge (Amaryllidaceae), known as Chinese garlic chive or long-stamen onion, is a small bulbous perennial herb native to East Asia and growing wild on grassy slopes, in fields and along roadsides in China, Korea, Japan and parts of Russia. It arises from a slender, ovoid to subglobose bulb 1 to 2 cm in diameter, covered with grayish-black or yellowish membranous tunics, often producing small bulbils. The leaves are basal, two to five, narrowly linear, semi-cylindrical and hollow, 2 to 4 mm wide and 20 to 40 cm long, with a strong onion or garlic odor when bruised. The flowering scape is solitary, slender, erect, 30 to 70 cm tall, terminating in a hemispherical umbel 1.5 to 3 cm across; the umbel often bears purple-tinged bulbils mixed with or replacing the flowers, and individual flowers are bell-shaped with six pale purple to pinkish tepals and conspicuously exserted stamens. The dried bulbs, harvested in early summer, constitute Xie Bai.