Species
+

Allium moly L.

Lily Leek, Yellow Garlic, Yellow Onion, lily leek

Climate known 52 photographs Bulb, tuber or caudex
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Allium moly, also known as yellow garlic, golden garlic and lily leek, Is a species of flowering plant in the genus Allium, which also includes the flowering and culinary onions and garlic. A bulbous herbaceous perennial from the Mediterranean. It is edible and used as a medicinal and ornamental plant. Allium moly is a bulb type flower, with the size of the bulb affecting the flowering period and the time of the flowering.

Text from Wikipedia, “Allium moly”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Allium

Allium is a large genus of monocotyledonous flowering plants with 1112 accepted species, making Allium the largest genus in the family Amaryllidaceae and among the largest plant genera in the world. Many of the species are edible, and some have a long history of cultivation and human consumption such as the onion, garlic, scallions, shallots, leeks, and chives.

Text from Wikipedia, “Allium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Amaryllidaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
France, Spain, Italy +2
Wild records
1023 in range· 616 open

At a glance

Warmest month
24°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
856mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Dec 90 mm (CHELSA)
Light
7–38DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by Amaryllidaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to January and April to June in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 856 mm a year, wettest December at 90 mm, driest February at 59 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -5.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Cepa moly (L.) Moench; Kalabotis moly (L.) Raf.; Molyza moly (L.) Salisb.; Nectaroscordum moly (L.) Galasso & Banfi.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by Amaryllidaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to January and April to June in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (614 mm of 856 mm) takes 8 months, September to January and April to June. Mean temperature moves 15.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to July and October to December.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 856 mm a year, wettest December at 90 mm, driest February at 59 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

856 mm a year at the habitat, 614 mm of it September to January and April to June. Wettest month December at 90 mm, driest February at 59 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 649 mm to 1312 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 38 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 5, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -5.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -5.5 °C, the absolute minimum -14.9 °C, about 63 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells -3.5 °C to 2.6 °C), warmest day 23.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -5.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 6 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jul; mean night from 0 °C in Jan to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 856 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 794 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -14.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost34.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-14.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 7–38RH 58–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 794 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C6 / 4–98 / 5–1011 / 9–1414 / 11–1618 / 15–2021 / 19–2524 / 21–2824 / 21–2820 / 18–2316 / 14–1810 / 8–127 / 4–9
Night °C0 / -4–30 / -3–33 / -1–45 / 1–69 / 5–1012 / 9–1314 / 12–1614 / 12–1611 / 9–138 / 5–104 / 1–61 / -2–3
Rain mm73 / 48–11959 / 42–9863 / 43–10071 / 51–12377 / 62–12764 / 41–10160 / 17–9360 / 24–9368 / 48–11188 / 68–13483 / 57–13590 / 62–145
DLI9 / 6–1514 / 11–2122 / 18–3030 / 28–3635 / 33–4138 / 35–4638 / 34–4833 / 29–4225 / 21–3216 / 13–2210 / 7–167 / 5–12
RH %66 / 60–6963 / 59–6561 / 56–6360 / 56–6260 / 55–6259 / 52–6258 / 49–6258 / 51–6261 / 54–6364 / 58–6666 / 60–6966 / 60–70

Each figure is the median across the 794 grid cells holding the 1014 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 945:3548 (42.725, -2.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -14.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -5.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 794 distinct grid cells holding the 1014 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 945:3548 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 42.50_-2.500, lapse-corrected +126 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 805 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeFrance, Spain, Italy, Algeria, Morocco· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany
Kew's description“bulbous geophyte” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker42.67, -1.47 · in the densest population, 879 records (86% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1023 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 616 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 774 km away. 433 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 9 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1023 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Allium molyAllium molyAllium molyAllium molyAllium molyAllium molyAllium molyAllium moly

Photographs: (c) Jorge Íñiguez, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Dr. Sven Gippner, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Rob Williams, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Nigel Bentley, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Allium moly, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Ethnobotanical review of wild edible plants in Spain
Javier Tardío, Manuel Pardo‐de‐Santayana, Ramón Morales (2006) · Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society
The interplay between inflorescence development and function as the crucible of architectural diversity
Lawrence D. Harder, Przemysław Prusinkiewicz (2012) · Annals of Botany
A second update to the checklist of the vascular flora alien to Italy
Gabriele Galasso, Fabio Conti, Lorenzo Peruzzi, Alessandro Alessandrini (2024) · Plant Biosystems - An International Journal Dealing with all Aspects of Plant Biology
ZYTOLOGISCHE STUDIEN AN ALLIUM SCHOENOPRASUM
ALBERT LEVAN (2010) · Hereditas
A comparative study of mannose-binding lectins from the amaryllidaceae and alliaceae
Els J. M. Van Damme, Irwin Goldstein, Willy J. Peumans (1991) · Phytochemistry
Cytotaxonomy of Spanish plants. II. Monocotyledons
Áskell Löve, Ebbe Kjellqvist (1973) · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas)
Ellenberg’s Indicator values for the Flora of Italy – first update: Pteridophyta, Gymnospermae and Monocotyledoneae
Riccardo Guarino, Gianniantonio Domina, Sandro Pignatti (2012) · Flora Mediterranea
XLI.—A contribution to the chemistry and physiology of foliage leaves
Horace T. Brown, G. Harris Morris (1893) · Journal of the Chemical Society Transactions
Soil fertility effect on water productivity of maize in the upper blue nile basin, Ethiopia
Teklu Erkossa, Seleshi Bekele Awulachew, Aster Denekew (2011) · Agricultural Sciences
Notes on systematics and taxonomy for the Italian vascular flora. 2.
Enrico Banfi, Gabriele Galasso, Adriano Soldano (2011) · Natural History Sciences

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Allium 12 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 93 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.