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CHIVE
Allium schoenoprasum L., family Amaryllidaceae

Chive (see "Onions") seeds are produced in limited quantities in the United States because the plant can also be propagated vegetatively. Even so, chives are not grown to any great extent. The leaves are used in fresh salads and for flavoring of other foods.

Plant:

Chives are perennial plants, much smaller than onions, and they grow in compact clumps or clusters. The leaves are about one-fourth the size of onion leaves. The seedstalk is short and, after the first year, appears annually (Hawthorn and Pollard 1954*).

Inflorescence:

The 1-foot-tall chive inflorescence has only 25 to 100 florets, and when seeds are produced, many shatter. It is considered to be a "shy" or poor seed producer.

Pollination Requirements:

Knuth (1909*, p. 457) stated that the flowers are feebly protandrous. The anthers release their pollen slightly before the stigma becomes receptive, and the flowers close at night so that self-pollination is possible if insect pollination fails. Kropacova et al. (1969) indicated that chives, like onions, require bee pollination.

Pollinators:

Kropacova et aL (1969) reported that honey bees were the primary pollinators of chives. They indicated an insufficiency of bees on the older plants.

Pollination Recommendations and Practices:

None.

LITERATURE CITED:

KROPACOVA, S., KROPAC, A., and NEDBAL0VA, V.
1969. [STUDIES OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FL0WER POLLINATION AND SEED FORMATION IN THE CHIVE.] Sb. Vys. Sk. Zemed. Brne A 17(1): 103-109. [In Czechoslovakian.] AA-486/71.

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