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Allium virgunculae; photograph Mason Brock, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF CC0Mason Brock, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF

Allium virgunculae F.Maek. & Kitam.

Amaryllidaceae · Japan · listed by its family as a bulb, tuber or caudex

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Allium virgunculae, photograph Mason Brock, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFAllium virgunculae, photograph Mason Brock, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFAllium virgunculae, photograph Mason Brock, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFAllium virgunculae, photograph Mason Brock, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFAllium virgunculae, photograph Mason Brock, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFAllium virgunculae, photograph Mason Brock, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF 20 photographs ›
Habitat figuresfrom few records
Coldest month, mean nightly low
5.5°C
Jan at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,445mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
14–35DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes April to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

From few records: 5 records in 4 grid cells. The records.

Summary

Allium virgunculae is a species of onion native to warm areas of Kyushu, Japan. Available from commercial suppliers, it is a late blooming ornamental onion, reaching about 25 cm (9.8 in), and considered to be a good plant to attract pollinators.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Allium virgunculae", 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 a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,748 mm of 2,440 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.2 °C against a yearly mean of 17.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to March.

Rain

2,440 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,748 mm of it April to September. Wettest month July at 406 mm, driest month December at 79 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,291 mm to 2,612 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,445 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,440 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: 14 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 5.5 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 3.7 °C to 6.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.7 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 5.5 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 54 to 71% 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. 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

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 5 records in 4 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Allium virgunculae through the yearWarmest month August, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 5.5 °C; 2,440 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.0°5°10°15°20°25°30°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 14–35RH 54–71%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 4 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C9 / 8–910 / 9–1013 / 12–1317 / 17–1720 / 20–2124 / 23–2427 / 27–2829 / 28–2926 / 26–2621 / 21–2216 / 16–1712 / 11–12
Night °C6 / 4–66 / 4–68 / 7–912 / 11–1316 / 15–1720 / 19–2024 / 23–2425 / 24–2622 / 21–2318 / 16–1813 / 11–138 / 6–9
Rain mm91 / 86–96108 / 101–113175 / 165–182213 / 200–223239 / 222–251380 / 355–415406 / 385–456252 / 235–275258 / 245–276117 / 109–122122 / 115–12879 / 73–82
DLI14 / 14–1420 / 19–2026 / 26–2633 / 32–3335 / 34–3531 / 30–3132 / 31–3333 / 32–3327 / 27–2824 / 24–2517 / 17–1714 / 14–14
RH %54 / 53–5655 / 54–5657 / 56–5860 / 59–6063 / 62–6468 / 67–6871 / 70–7166 / 65–6763 / 61–6457 / 56–5855 / 54–5654 / 53–55

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 24% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum -2.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 3.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.8 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 4 grid cells holding the 5 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1132:6192 (33.375, 129.625). Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 4 distinct grid cells holding 5 of the 5 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1132:6192 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 24% land and none of the 2 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 33.50_129.375, lapse-corrected +30 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 39 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeJapan · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker33.212, 129.435 · in the densest population, 5 records (56% of those in range)
Kew's description“bulbous geophyte” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 9 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 5 of them placed to within 10 km, all openly licensed and shown on the map. Under a dozen records behind the map and the climate. 4 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 9 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Allium virgunculae, photograph 1did not loadAllium virgunculae, photograph 2did not loadAllium virgunculae, photograph 3did not loadAllium virgunculae, photograph 4did not loadAllium virgunculae, photograph 5did not loadAllium virgunculae, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Mason Brock, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (6).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Boehmeria holosericea Boehmeria holosericea Seashore falsenettle Photo: CC BY, pavlaki1968Euphorbia jolkinii Euphorbia jolkinii Jolkin’s spurge Photo: CC0, author not statedDianthus japonicus Dianthus japonicus Seashore pink Photo: CC BY, Samuele PapeschiFarfugium japonicum Farfugium japonicum Leopard plant Photo: CC BY, WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁Daphniphyllum teijsmannii Daphniphyllum teijsmannii Daphniphyllaceae Photo: CC BY, Saryu Mae 前 朝琉Eurya emarginata Eurya emarginata Emarginate eurya Photo: CC BY, Jason

Other Allium 241 in the reference

Allium acuminatum Allium acuminatum Tapertip onion Photo: CC BY-SA, Brian FinzelAllium acutiflorum Allium acutiflorum Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC BY, Nicola CrockfordAllium aflatunense Allium aflatunense Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedAllium akaka Allium akaka Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, C T Johansson Allium alexeianum Amaryllidaceae Allium altaicum Allium altaicum Altai onion Photo: CC BY, Urgamal MagsarAllium altissimum Allium altissimum Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC BY, Wolfgang AhlmerAllium altyncolicum Allium altyncolicum Altynkol Chive Photo: CC BY, Oleg KosterinAllium amethystinum Allium amethystinum Amethyst Garlic Photo: CC BY, Eleftherios KatsillisAllium ampeloprasum Allium ampeloprasum Wild Leek Photo: CC BY, Felix Blesch Allium amphibolum Amaryllidaceae Allium amplectens Allium amplectens Slim-leaved onion Photo: CC BY, Parker James Lloyd all 242 ›

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Amaryllidaceae
Described by
F.Maek. & Kitam.
Native to
Japan
Wild records
9 in range · 9 open

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 record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 33.50_129.375, lapse-corrected +30 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (24% land), so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every 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 5 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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