Context: Recently, a newly discovered plant Allium negianum, in Uttarakhand has been confirmed to belong to the genus that includes many staple foods such as onion and garlic.
Key Points

• A plant discovered in Uttarakhand in 2019 has been newly confirmed as a new species of Allium.
• The plant, called Allium Negianum is a new species of onion.
• It was discovered in the Indo-Tibetan border area of Malari village, Niti valley of Chamoli district in Uttarakhand.
• It is restricted to the region of Western Himalayas in India and hasn’t yet been reported from anywhere else in the world.
• It grows at 3000 to 4800 m above sea level.
• It can be found along open grassy meadows, sandy soils along rivers, and streams forming in snow pasture lands along alpine meadows.
• The alpine meadows are locally known as “Bugyal/Bugial”, where the melting snow actually helps carry the seed to more favourable areas.
• It has long been known to local communities and the onion from Niti Valley deemed the best on the market.

About Allium

• Allium is one of the largest genera in Amaryllidaceae, a family of herbaceous, mainly perennial and bulbous flowering plants.
• The genus has about 1,100 species distributed worldwide, including onion, garlic, scallion, shallot and chives.
• It naturally occurs in dry seasons in the northern hemisphere and South Africa.
• The primary center of evolution for the genus extends across the Irano-Turanian bio-geographical region.
• The Mediterranean basin and western North America are considered as the secondary centers of diversity.

Indian Himalayan region has two distinct centers of Allium diversity

• The western Himalaya (over 85% of total diversity) and
• The eastern Himalaya (6%), covering the alpine-sub temperate region.