It has a distinct onion odor. It has slender grass-like leaves and reaches about 2 feet in height when flowers appear in late summer.
Leaves are narrow, long, and with parallel edges arising from the small underground bulb.
Flowers, varying in color, depending on the species, from white to pink, appear at the top of a leafless stem and eventually become bulblets which drop to the ground and propagate. Encyclopedia of Illinois, 2nd. Somerset Publishers, New York, 1994.