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United States / Grow / nodding onion

nodding onion (Allium cernuum)
Photo: no rights reserved (CC0), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

nodding onion

Allium cernuum · Amaryllidaceae · all Allium records · Wikipedia

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Is this one for your yard?

Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.

Yes, nodding onion is consistently rated fire resistant by extension and Firewise sources across western North America.

All six sources recommend it. A joint Oregon State, Washington State, and University of Idaho extension guide lists it as fire resistant, while FireSmart BC approves it for fire-resistant planting. Oregon State’s educational gallery, Colorado State’s extension service, Idaho Firewise, and Fremont County Firewise reach the same practical conclusion. This agreement spans expert-curated guidance, compiled plant lists, and field-based scoring rather than resting on a single kind of assessment.

The numerical findings are especially strong. Idaho Firewise gives nodding onion a fire-resistance score of 10 out of 10, which its scale treats as acceptable at a minimum distance of 10 feet. Colorado State preserves a 10-of-10 ignitability score from the Idaho materials; under Colorado State’s usage, scores from 8 through 10 qualify for defensible-space zones 1 and 2. Fremont County also includes the plant in a Firewise list described generally as favoring low-growing, low-debris, relatively moist plants. These sources are describing landscape suitability, not promising that any plant cannot burn.

Nodding onion is a perennial in the Amaryllidaceae family, native across southeastern, southwestern, northwestern, and north-central parts of the United States. Its broad native range and the repeated fire-resistant recommendations make it a well-supported choice where reducing landscape ignition risk is the goal.

Form
perennial
Rated in
British Columbia; Colorado / Rocky Mountain Front Range; Fremont County, Wyoming; New Mexico +3
On this lot

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Placement evidence
5 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions
British Columbia; Colorado / Rocky Mountain Front Range; Fremont County, Wyoming; New Mexico; OR/WA/ID; Pacific Northwest (Oregon / Washington / Idaho); southern Idaho / Intermountain
Typed publication scope: 5 scopes across 5 cited fire sources
  • Ignition-Resistant Landscape Plants (Fact Sheet 6.305) · Official scoped edition
    • CO; partial normalized coverage · 2025-07-01

      Colorado State University Extension and the Colorado State Forest Service publish Fact Sheet 6.305 for Colorado's WUI and varied ecosystems. FireApproved exposes all 114 exact source owners at Colorado publication scope while retaining score, elevation, water, and Idaho-carrier lineage. Publication scope is not suitability for every Colorado site or zone.

  • Fremont County Firewise Plant List · Official scoped edition
    • Fremont County (WY footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2011-02-25

      The source identifies itself as the Fremont County Firewise Plant List. FireApproved publishes its 92 exact source owners as Fremont County regional context. No methodology, current county endorsement, statewide Wyoming scope, or site-specific suitability is inferred.

  • Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database · Official scoped edition
    • Southern Idaho (ID footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2013-11-08

      The official database labels itself "For Southern Idaho" and describes Idaho residents at the urban-rangeland interface. FireApproved publishes 419 existing plant owners that cite its scored rows. This bounded Southern Idaho scope is regional context, not statewide coverage or a conclusion that the score transfers unchanged to every Idaho site.

  • FireWise Plant List for New Mexico · Official scoped edition
    • NM; partial normalized coverage · 2003-10-08

      New Mexico Forestry Division publishes this as its FireWise Plant List for New Mexico. FireApproved accounts for all 140 printed rows and publishes 95 exact same-rank owners already represented in the directory; 29 exact taxa without an existing record, 14 unresolved spellings or higher-rank matches, one compound taxon cell, and one species row whose only apparent owner has an infraspecific printed identity remain held. Every published row retains the source's Y, N, ?, or blank elevation cells. Publication scope does not erase those elevation limits or establish suitability for every New Mexico site.

  • Fire-Resistant Plants for Home Landscapes (PNW 590) · Official scoped edition
    • ID, OR, WA; partial normalized coverage · 2023-10-01

      The October 2023 joint Pacific Northwest Extension publication explicitly names Oregon, Washington, and Idaho and publishes more than 150 plant profiles. FireApproved has normalized 155 exact plant records from the source; publication scope does not assert that every listed plant suits every site within the three states.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution
Documented in AL, AR, AZ, CO, DC, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, NE, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI, WV, WY.
Native range
Current cited native range in AL, AR, AZ, CO, DC, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MD, MI, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI, WV, WY.
USDA hardiness
Documented range 4–8.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Native and introduced range evidence

These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval. Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.

Current native

33

exact source areas

Current introduced

0

exact source areas

Qualified

0

doubtful or extinct source rows

33 native source areas · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04
  • Alabama (AL)
  • Arkansas (AR)
  • Arizona (AZ)
  • Colorado (CO)
  • District of Columbia (DC)
  • Georgia (GA)
  • Iowa (IA)
  • Idaho (ID)
  • Illinois (IL)
  • Indiana (IN)
  • Kentucky (KY)
  • Maryland (MD)
  • Michigan (MI)
  • Minnesota (MN)
  • Missouri (MO)
  • Montana (MT)
  • North Carolina (NC)
  • Nebraska (NE)
  • New Mexico (NM)
  • New York (NY)
  • Ohio (OH)
  • Oregon (OR)
  • Pennsylvania (PA)
  • South Carolina (SC)
  • South Dakota (SD)
  • Tennessee (TN)
  • Texas (TX)
  • Utah (UT)
  • Virginia (VA)
  • Washington (WA)
  • Wisconsin (WI)
  • West Virginia (WV)
  • Wyoming (WY)

The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.

Plant hardiness evidence

These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.

Where its sources say to plant it

Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating. They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Recommends (7)

Corroboration (3 rows from 3 sources)

  • FireSmart BC Plant Program — fire-resistant plant chart — FireSmart BC · original source Corroboration Compilation lineage: pnw590-tree resolves to Fire-Resistant Plants for Home Landscapes (PNW 590)

    “FireSmart-approved fire-resistant plant”

  • Fremont County Firewise Plant List — Fremont County Firewise · web page (server last-modified 2011-02-25) · original source Corroboration Compilation lineage: unknown

    “Fremont County Firewise Plant List — Allium cernum — Nodding Onion”

    Listed in the source's Ground Covers section; the page describes its listed Firewise plants as generally low-growing, low-debris, and relatively moist.

  • FireWise Plant List for New Mexico — New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, Forestry Division · 2003 Forestry Division PDF · original source Corroboration Compilation lineage: csu-nmsu-firewise

    “FireWise Plant List for New Mexico”

    Listed as Allium cernuum (Nodding onion) in Flowers and Ground Covers. Printed elevation cells: 4,000 ft=N, 5,000 ft=Y, 6,000 ft=Y, 7,000 ft=Y, 8,000 ft=Y, 9,000+ ft=Y. Water need: L-H; sun/shade: S/PS; mature height: 1’; approximate bloom: Jun.

Same genus in the directory · the Allium group page

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata · Wikipedia · ITIS

Allium cernuum (Nodding onion). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/allium-cernuum/. Last verified 2026-08-23.