Soğanlar yalnız ya da rizoma eklenmiş küme halindedir. Yapraklar doğrusal ya da eliptik, düz ila silindiriktir. Çiçekler tepede şemsiye halindedir. Birçok türü belirgin sarımsak ya da soğan kokusuna sahiptir.[5]
Cinse tür atamak taksonomik olarak hayli karmaşıktır ve bağlı türlerin taksonomik sınırları net değildir. Bu nedenle toplam tür sayısı asgari 260[6] ile azami 979'dur[7] ki aradaki fark cinsin zorluğuna işaret eder.
Etimoloji
Cins adı Latince sarımsak[8][9] demek iken, tip tür adı birlikte kültive edilmiş sarımsak anlamına gelir.[10]
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Choi, Hyeok Jae; Giussani, Liliana M.; Jang, Chang Gee; Oh, Byoung Un; Cota-Sánchez, J. Hugo (Haziran 2012). "Systematics of disjunct northeastern Asian and northern North American Allium (Amaryllidaceae)". Botany. 90 (6): 491-508. doi:10.1139/b2012-031.
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İpek, Meryem; İpek, Ahmet; SIMON, Philipp W. (2014). "Testing the utility of matK and ITS DNA regions for discrimination of Allium species". Turkish Journal of Botany. 38: 203-212. doi:10.3906/bot-1308-46.
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Nguyen, Nhu H.; Driscoll, Heather E.; Specht, Chelsea D. (2008). "A molecular phylogeny of the wild onions (Allium; Alliaceae) with a focus on the western North American center of diversity". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 47 (3): 1157-1172. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2007.12.006. PMID18226928.
Seregin, Alexey P.; Anačkov, Goran; Friesen, Nikolai (Mayıs 2015). "Molecular and morphological revision of the Allium saxatile group (Amaryllidaceae): geographical isolation as the driving force of underestimated speciation". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 178 (1): 67-101. doi:10.1111/boj.12269.
Tzanoudakis, Dimitris; Trigas, Panayiotis (12 Mart 2015). "Allium occultum, a new species of A. sect. Codonoprasum (Amaryllidaceae) from Skiros Island (W Aegean, Greece)". Phytotaxa. 202 (2): 135. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.202.2.5.
Wheeler, E. J.; Mashayekhi, S.; McNeal, D. W.; Columbus, J. T.; Pires, J. C. (26 Mart 2013). "Molecular systematics of Allium subgenus Amerallium (Amaryllidaceae) in North America". American Journal of Botany. 100 (4): 701-711. doi:10.3732/ajb.1200641. PMID23535771.
"Linnaeus Sexual System". CronkLab. Biodiversity Research Centre, University of British Columbia. 4 Şubat 2015 tarihinde kaynağından arşivlendi. Erişim tarihi: 26 Ocak 2015.
^Knud Rahn. 1998. "Alliaceae" pages 70-78. In: Klaus Kubitzki (editor). The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants volume III. Springer-Verlag: Berlin;Heidelberg, Germany. 978-3-540-64060-8