Describe Allium cepa in botanical terms.

Explanation

Vegetative Characters :
1. Habit: Perennial herb with bulb.
2. Root: Fibrous adventitious root system.
3. Stem: Underground bulb.
4. Leaf: A cluster of radical leaves emerges from the underground bulb, cylindrical and fleshy having sheathy leaf bases with parallel venation.
Floral Characters :
1. Inflorescence: Scapigerous i.e. the inflorescence axis (peduncle) arising from the ground bearing a cluster of flowers at its apex. Pedicels are of equal lenth, arising from the apex of the peduncle which brings all flowers at the same level.
2. Flower : Small, white, bracteate, ebracteolate, pedicellate, complete, trimerous, actinomorphic and hypogynous. Flowers are protandrous.
3. Perianth : Tepals 6, white, arranged in two whorls of three each, syntepalous showing valvate aestivatikon.
4. Androecium: Stamens 6, arranged in two whorls of three each, epiphyllous, apostamenous /free and opposite to tepals. Anthers dithecous, basifixed, introse, and dehiscing longitudinally.
5. Gynoecium: Tricarpellary and syncarpous. Ovary superior, trilocular with two ovules in each locule on axile placentation. Style simple, slender with simple stigma.
6. Fruit: A loculicidal capsule.
7. Seed: Endospermous.
8. Floral Formula: