Allioideae

Allioideae, subfamily of flowering plants in the family Amaryllidaceae (order Asparagales), with about 18 genera distributed throughout most regions of the world, except for the tropics, Australia, and New Zealand. Although formerly treated as its own family (Alliaceae), Allioideae has been recategorized as a subfamily by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group III (APG III) botanical classification system. Members of the group have corms, bulbs, or rhizomes (underground stems); most have long thin leaves and clusters of varying numbers of flowers.

The genus Allium contains several edible plants, including the common onion (A. cepa), wild onion (A. cernuum), garlic (A. sativum), wild garlic (A. ursinum), leek (A. porrum), chives (A. schoenoprasum), and shallot (A. cepa, variety aggregatum). Many other onion- or garlic-scented species are cultivated as ornamental border plants, such as golden garlic (A. moly) and keeled garlic (A. carinatum) of Europe and autumn onion (A. stellatum) and prairie onion (A. textile) of North America.

Plants of the genus Tulbaghia also are popular ornamentals. Society garlic, or pink agapanthus (Tulbaghia violacea), has a thick stem, garlic-scented leaves, and urn-shaped purple flowers. African lily, or lily of the Nile (Agapanthus africanus), is a common ornamental in warm areas and is grown for its large attractive flower clusters.