This is an ancient cultivated species from East Asia that is generally known as "garlic chives" in English. It is widely grown in North America, but persistent or escaped plants have only been reported from a few sites, mostly in the mid-west (FNA 25, K). The species is commonly cultivated for food in Ky., and it has also been used in ornamental beds, sometimes mixed with native wildflowers. There has been occasional confusion with native species of Allium. A. tuberosum can appear similar to the canadense complex, sharing erect but loose umbels with stellate to campanulate flowers, and bulbs with outer coat becoming a finely reticulate fibrous tunic (FNA 25). It differs as follows: bulbs 1-3 (versus 1-4+), narrowly cylindric (versus ovoid), attached to moreor less horizontal primary rhizome (versus not so), but often missing or not visible on herbarium specimens; leaf blade carinate (versus not so); cells of seed coat smooth, shiny (versus each with minute central papilla). Flowers are relatively late, mostly in Jul-Sep, and creamy white in general, but a purplish or "mauve" cultivar has been reported (rhs.org.uk). Stems are 20-80 cm tall, terete or 2(3) angled, solid or perhaps hollow in more robust plants; characters need to be checked. An especially robust cultivar "Monstrosum" has been developed in Germany and perhaps widely distributed (Heinrich 2010); it may be the common form in ornamental plantings of Ky.