Star of Persia
Allium cristophii Trautv.
- light
- Sun–part
- water
- —
- tall
- 51 cm
- wide
- 46 cm
Amaryllidaceae
Also called Persian Onion, Star-of-Persia, Persian onion
Formerly Caloscordum cristophii
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- Bulbous geophyteKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- TemperateKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- C. Türkiye (Kayseri), Turkmenistan (Kopet Da.) to NE. IranKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun to part shade (3 h or more)Read from NC State Extension and Wikipedia, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources
- Height
- 51 cmRead from NC State Extension and Wikipedia, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources. Sources differ: NC State Extension 6–24 in; Wikipedia 50–50 cm
- Spread
- 30 cm to 61 cmRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Flowers
- Pink, purpleRead from NC State Extension and Wikipedia, not yet checked: its sources are splitTied: no reading has a majority of the 2 sources, so all are kept for a person to settle. Sources differ: NC State Extension purple; Wikipedia pink
- Coldest it survives
- -31.6 °C (USDA zone 4b)Read from NC State Extension and Wikipedia, checked: the middle of what its sources sayHalfway between its 2 sources, which differ. Sources differ: NC State Extension -34.4 °C; Wikipedia -28.9 °C
Not known yet: water, heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (12)
- German
- Sternkugel-Lauch
- Russian
- Лук Христофа
- Czech
- česnek ozdobný
- Estonian
- turkmeenia lauk
- Swedish
- stäpplök
- Polish
- Czosnek białawy, Czosnek Krzysztofa
- Chinese (China)
- 纸花韭
- Finnish
- tähtilaukka
- French
- Étoile de Perse, Ail à boule étoilée
- Chinese
- 紙花韭, 纸花葱, 纸花韭
- Slovak
- cesnak kovovolesklý
- Lithuanian
- Standžiažiedis česnakas
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikipedia, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA 3.0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- 3D model: Allium cristophii (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.