46 photographs › At a glance
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Summary
Allium pallasii is a species of wild onion native to Central Asia, Mongolia, Altay Krai and Xinjiang. It occurs in deserts and dry steppes at elevations of 600–2300 m.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Allium pallasii", CC BY-SA 4.0.
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.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Allium", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex, listed under the family Amaryllidaceae in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “bulbous geophyte”.
Seasons
The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (247 mm of 325 mm) takes 8 months, March to August and October to November. Mean temperature moves 34.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to February and April to May.
Rain
325 mm in the median year at the habitat, 247 mm of it March to August and October to November. Wettest month July at 43 mm, driest month February at 18 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 220 mm to 687 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 328 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 325 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.
Light
Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 43 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 5, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -29.6 °C, the absolute minimum -45.2 °C, 7,962 frost nights in 44 years, 181.0 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -16.3 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -19.6 °C to -10.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.5 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -29.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 49 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
How this section is made
Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.
Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light. 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.
Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -6 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.
Group. Listed under the family Amaryllidaceae in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “bulbous geophyte”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.
Climate across the habitat
Habitat months, northern hemisphere
Mean daily high from -9 °C in Jan to 27 °C in Jul; mean nightly low from -16 °C in Jan and Feb to 15 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 2 months in a row that tie for it. 325 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 131 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was -45.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | -9 / -12–-1 | -7 / -10–2 | 0 / -3–9 | 11 / 8–18 | 19 / 14–24 | 25 / 18–30 | 27 / 20–32 | 25 / 20–31 | 19 / 15–25 | 10 / 7–16 | 0 / -3–8 | -7 / -10–1 |
| Night °C | -16 / -20–-10 | -16 / -18–-9 | -10 / -12–-3 | -1 / -4–5 | 7 / 1–11 | 13 / 6–17 | 15 / 8–19 | 13 / 8–18 | 7 / 3–12 | 1 / -5–5 | -7 / -12–-2 | -14 / -18–-8 |
| Rain mm | 19 / 13–35 | 18 / 12–38 | 22 / 13–53 | 26 / 17–75 | 39 / 24–94 | 36 / 20–78 | 43 / 24–82 | 25 / 14–61 | 20 / 9–42 | 29 / 18–57 | 27 / 19–56 | 21 / 14–43 |
| DLI | 11 / 7–16 | 18 / 14–22 | 26 / 23–31 | 35 / 32–40 | 40 / 38–44 | 43 / 41–45 | 41 / 38–44 | 37 / 32–40 | 29 / 23–32 | 19 / 12–22 | 12 / 7–15 | 8 / 5–13 |
| RH % | 63 / 53–73 | 61 / 54–71 | 59 / 54–67 | 53 / 50–56 | 50 / 48–56 | 50 / 45–56 | 50 / 44–57 | 49 / 43–57 | 50 / 45–56 | 55 / 51–58 | 60 / 53–65 | 64 / 53–69 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) evgeniq_benihanov, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Urgamal Magsar, some rights reserved (CC BY).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Atraphaxis frutescens Polygonaceae Photo: CC BY, Svyatoslav Knyazev
Tulipa altaica Liliaceae Photo: CC BY, Maxim Shashkov
Allium delicatulum Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC BY, Мария Ткаченко
Allium tulipifolium Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC BY, ivansemenkov
Rosa laxa Rosaceae Photo: CC BY, Margarita
Eremurus altaicus Asphodelaceae Photo: CC BY, Oleg KosterinOther Allium 241 in the reference
Allium acuminatum Tapertip onion Photo: CC BY-SA, Brian Finzel
Allium acutiflorum Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC BY, Nicola Crockford
Allium aflatunense Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated
Allium akaka Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, C T Johansson Allium alexeianum Amaryllidaceae 
Allium altaicum Altai onion Photo: CC BY, Urgamal Magsar
Allium altissimum Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC BY, Wolfgang Ahlmer
Allium altyncolicum Altynkol Chive Photo: CC BY, Oleg Kosterin
Allium amethystinum Amethyst Garlic Photo: CC BY, Eleftherios Katsillis
Allium ampeloprasum Wild Leek Photo: CC BY, Felix Blesch Allium amphibolum Amaryllidaceae 
Allium amplectens Slim-leaved onion Photo: CC BY, Parker James Lloyd all 242 ›Names & registers
Also known as Allium albertii; Allium caricifolium; Allium lepidum; Allium nitidulum; Allium pallasii var. macrospathum and 4 more. (GBIF Backbone)
Under another author Allium saxatile Hohen. and Allium saxatile Hohen. ex Boiss. is an older name of this species, not Allium saxatile, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →
Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21climate answeredasked 2026-10-21climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 48.50_70.000, lapse-corrected -6 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 24 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.