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Carl Linnaeus first described the genus Allium in 1753. The decision to include a species in the genus Allium is taxonomically difficult, and species boundaries are unclear. Estimates of the number of species are as low as 260, and as high as 979. Plants of the genus Allium produce chemical compounds, mostly derived from cysteine sulfoxides, that give them a characteristic onion or garlic taste and odor.

Many are used as food plants, though not all members of the genus are equally flavorful. In most cases, both bulb and leaves are edible. Allium is one of about fifty-seven genera of flowering plants with more than 500 species. The bulbs are solitary or clustered and tunicate and the plants are perennialized by the bulbs reforming annually from the base of the old bulbs, or are produced on the ends of rhizomes or, in a few species, at the ends of stolons.

Many alliums have basal leaves that commonly wither away from the tips downward before or while the plants flower, but some species have persistent foliage. Plants produce from one to 12 leaves, most species having linear, channeled or flat leaf blades. The leaf blades are straight or variously coiled, but some species have broad leaves, including A. The flowers, which are produced on scapes are erect or in some species pendent, having six petal-like tepals produced in two whorls. The fruits are capsules that open longitudinally along the capsule wall between the partitions of the locule. The seeds are black, and have a rounded shape. The terete or flattened flowering scapes are normally persistent.

The inflorescences are umbels, in which the outside flowers bloom first and flowering progresses to the inside. Some bulbous alliums increase by forming little bulbs or “offsets” around the old one, as well as by seed. Many of the species of Allium have been used as food items throughout their ranges. Allium spicatum had been treated by many authors as Milula spicata, the only species in the monospecific genus Milula. In 2000, it was shown to be embedded in Allium. Linnaeus originally grouped his 30 species into three alliances, e. Since then, many attempts have been made to divide the growing number of recognised species into infrageneric subgroupings, initially as sections, and then as subgenera further divided into sections.

For a brief history, see Li et al. Subsequent molecular phylogenetic studies have shown the 2006 classification is a considerable improvement over previous classifications, but some of its subgenera and sections are probably not monophyletic. The major evolutionary lineages or lines correspond to the three major clades. The three evolutionary lineages and 15 subgenera represent the classification scheme of Friesen et al. Although this lineage consists of three subgenera, nearly all the species are attributed to subgenus Amerallium, the third largest subgenus of Allium. The lineage is considered to represent the most ancient line within Allium, and to be the only lineage that is purely bulbous, the other two having both bulbous and rhizomatous taxa. Nearly all the species in this lineage of five subgenera are accounted for by subgenus Melanocrommyum, which is most closely associated with subgenera Vvedenskya and Porphyroprason, phylogenetically.

These three genera are late-branching whereas the remaining two subgenera, Caloscordum and Anguinum, are early branching. Allium: subgenus Allium, which includes the type species of the genus, Allium sativum. This subgenus also contains the majority of the species in its lineage. Within the lineage, the phylogeny is complex. The genus Allium has very large variation between species in their genome size that is not accompanied by changes in ploidy level.