Taking Inventory: Allium

It’s time for another flower edition of Taking Inventory, in which I try and convince you that a particular flower is the BEST flower in Minecraft. But this week, my job is easier than normal - because we’re looking at the proudest, most noble flower in the whole game. It’s the allium.

Alliums were added to Minecraft in 2013 in Java update 1.7.2, which also added acacia wood and stained glass. They’re one of the rarer flowers in Minecraft - only spawning in a single biome, the flower forest. You might also find them occasionally in woodland mansions.

Alliums are tall flowers, with a long thin stem and a glorious purple crown on top. They look great planted in orange flowerpots alongside pink or green carpets. But if you want to really wow your friends with your colour pairing, try setting them against a white or light grey background for an elegantly minimal aesthetic. Lovely.

Not into interior design? Alright, well, I guess you can grind them up into magenta dye. Or you can craft them with mushrooms into a suspicious stew with curiously cooling qualities. Worst case scenario, if you have a whole chest of alliums and nothing to do with them, you can compost them. But that would be an ignoble end for such a beautiful flower.

Image credit: Wadester16 // CC BY-SA 3.0

In the real world, alliums are not a single flower but a whole group of plants that includes hundreds of different species. It encompasses onions, garlic, shallots, leeks and chives, as well as a bunch of their inedible cousins. They’re native to the temperate climates of the northern hemisphere, but are now cultivated all around the world.

Minecraft’s alliums seem to be largely based on Allium giganteum, the “giant onion”, which is an ornamental plant that’s native to Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, and comes with a big purple ball-shaped flower on top. But be careful if you have pets and you’re thinking of filling the garden with alliums - many species are poisonous to cats and dogs.

In conclusion, look past the whole pet-poisoning thing and you’ll find that alliums are pretty much the best flower in Minecraft. Right? Right. Riiiiiiiiiiiight...