Allium fistulosum
species of plant
Allium fistulosum, the Welsh onion, also commonly called bunching onion, long green onion, Japanese bunching onion, stone leek, rock onion and spring onion, is a species of perennial plant, often considered to be a kind of scallion.
The species is very similar in taste and odor to the related common onion, Allium cepa, and hybrids between the two (tree onions) exist. A. fistulosum, however, does not develop bulbs, and its leaves and scapes are hollow (fistulosum means 'hollow'). Larger varieties of A. fistulosum, such as the Japanese negi, resemble the leek, and smaller varieties resemble chives. A. fistulosum can multiply by forming perennial evergreen clumps. It is also grown in a bunch as an ornamental plant.
Names
The common name "Welsh onion" does not refer to Wales; indeed, the plant is neither indigenous to Wales nor particularly common in Welsh cuisine (the green Allium common to Wales is the leek, A. ampeloprasum, the national vegetable of Wales). Instead, it derives from a near-obsolete botanical use of Welsh in the sense 'foreign, non-native' because the species is native to China, although it is cultivated in many places and naturalized in scattered locations throughout Eurasia and North America.
Historically, A. fistulosum was known as the cibol. In Cornwall, they are known as chibols, and in Scotland as sybows or sybies.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Allium fistulosum” as species of plant. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of plant. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q27938. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Allium fistulosum” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.