# What are these flowers?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-flowers/454111>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 24, 2008, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-flowers/454111 "2008-06-24T21:20:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-flowers/454111/1 "2008-06-24T21:20:16Z")

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Today while driving past some townhouses, I saw some really cool flowers in the gardens next to the street. Mind you, I was driving, so I didn’t get all the details.

- they consisted of a single stalk with a single big purple flower on top
- the flower was a sphere, maybe 3"-4" in diameter
- altogether the plant was between 2 and 3 feet tall
- there were some leaves near the ground at the base of the stalk. They looked a little bit like tulip leaves

I’ve never seen a flower like this before, and must have one for myself. They look like something out of Dr. Seuss!

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**Author:** ![mlerose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@mlerose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlerose)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-flowers/454111/2 "2008-06-24T21:24:02Z")

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Maybe dahlias? I’ve seen some huge ones on really tall stalks.

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**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-flowers/454111/3 "2008-06-24T21:34:21Z")

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That sounds like Ornamental Onion.

Try google images for that.

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-flowers/454111/4 "2008-06-24T21:35:27Z")

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[Allium](http://images.google.com/images?q=ornamental%20onion&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi)?  
I don’t usually think of the leaves as tulip-like, but there is some leaf variety among the ornamental onions.

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**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-flowers/454111/5 "2008-06-24T22:28:58Z")

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Ornamental Onion - that’s it! As always, the Dope comes through. 😃