Allium acuminatum produces bulbs that are spherical, less than 2 cm across and smelling like onions.Turner, Nancy J. Food Plants of Interior First Peoples (Victoria: UBC Press, 1997) Scape is up to 40 cm tall, wearing an umbel of as many as 40 flowers. The flowers are pink to purple with yellow anthers.photo of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, isotype of "Allium acuminatum"Hooker, William Jackson. 1838. Flora Boreali-Americana 2: 184, pl. 196.Cronquist, A.J., A. H. Holmgren, N. H. Holmgren & Reveal. 1977. Vascular Plants of the Intermountain West, U.S.A. 6: 1–584. In A.J. Cronquist, A. H. Holmgren, N. H. Holmgren, J. L. Reveal & P. K. Holmgren (eds.) Intermountain Flora. Hafner Pub. Co., New York.Hickman, J. C. 1993. The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California 1–1400. University of California Press, BerkeleyHitchcock, C. H., A.J. Cronquist, F. M. Ownbey & J. W. Thompson. 1969. Vascular Cryptogams, Gymnosperms, and Monocotyledons. 1: 1–914. In C. L. Hitchcock, Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press, Seattle.Scoggan, H. J. 1978 [1979]. Pteridophyta, Gymnospermae, Monocotyledoneae. 2: 93–545. In Flora of Canada. National Museums of Canada, Ottawa. The plant also produces two or three grooved leaves which tend to wither prior to bloom. Its native habitats include open, rocky slopes, among brush and pines.
