Flower for the Day Allium 5-6-26

Allium (Allium giganteum) are in the largest genus in the family Amaryllidaceae. The flowers form an umbel at the top of a leafless stalk. The flowers are erect having six petal-like tepals produced in two whorls. The flowers have one style <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gynoecium> and six epipetalous stamens. In the umbels the outside flowers bloom first and flowering progresses to the inside. Who doesn’t love a ball of purple stars?  In Praise of Allium No one celebrates the allium. The way each purposeful stem ends in a globe, a domed umbel, makes people think, ‘Drumsticks,’ and that’s that. Besides, it’s related to the onion. Is that any reason for disregard? The flowers – look – are bouquets of miniature florets, each with six elfin pointed petals and some narrower ones my eyes aren’t sharp enough to count, and three stamens about the size of a long eyelash. Every root sends up a sheaf of sturdy ridged stems, bounty to fill your embrace. The bees care for the allium, if you don’t ­– hear them now, doing their research, humming the arias of a honey opera, Allium it’s called, gold fur voluptuously brushing that dreamy mauve. Denise Levertov