Is this an allium? Pale yellow flowers in upright umbels, each petal with a purple stripe down the middle, purple stems and stalks.
This looks a lot like the BC native Triteleia hyacinthina (blooming now) so maybe it is another species of Triteleia. You may find the one you are wondering about on Pacific Bulb Society | Triteleia Species Two .
Thank you, @Margot. The first one that comes up at your great link is Triteleia hendersonii, which has the right colouring and flower shape, and there is supposed to be one of those in the Alpine Garden. There is even a BPotD on the species at Triteleia hendersonii, at which I made a comment, not on the flower, but it does indicate that I've seen the flower and the name together. Those PBotD photos were not taken at UBCBG. I'm pleased to see that the common name for this one is Henderson's triteleia and not fool's onion, as is the case for T. hyacinthina. That would have been more apt, though. Triteleia are in the Asparagaceae family.
These plants are in the Garry Oak Meadow section of the garden, and I think they are Triteleia hyacinthina. I don't find this on my database list; T. ixioides is listed, but these seem too white for what I'm seeing posted of that species. One group of these is right in front of the Spring Burst interpretive sign at the beginning of the walk up from the tunnel. Funnily enough, what got me thinking about Triteleia today was a label for Brodiaea coronaria, which is right in the midst of the plants below. I remembered that I'd come across the name Brodiaea when reading about Triteleia, so I first thought "oh no, not another plant I'm mistaking for an onion." But actually, these are onions - I'm pretty sure Allium cernuum, nodding onion. And then I thought the above plants were the Brodiaea, but I see that Brodiaea are generally purple and they have three fertile stamens instead of six, so the only use for that label was to remind me of Triteleia.
I can see how this is becoming quite confusing. Part of the problem is the fact that plant names have changed over the past few years. The best source I know to find up-to-date information is E-Flora BC. When I first became acquainted with plants I found in my Garry Oak habitat garden, the names were Brodiaea hyacinthina and Brodiaea coronaria. The first 4 photos you show in your post do look to be Tritaleia hyacinthina (formerly Brodiaea hyacinthina). I do not see Brodiaea coronaria among the second set of 4 photos, just Allium cernuum. Maybe I misunderstood what you you meant by finding a label. These are all garden-worthy plants in my opinion. I now grow the native Allium cernuum, A. acuminatum, A. amplectens and A. geyeri as well as Triteliaea hyacinthina and Brodiaea cornonaria, all in bloom now. Are you sure that Tritaleia hyacinthina and Brodiaea coronaria are onions? I'd happily give you a few of any and all of these if you want them for the Garden.
I did not mean to say that - Tritaleia and Brodiaea are both in the Asparagaceae family, while Allium (onions) are Amaryllidaceae - only that on Thursday, I thought the Tritaleia was an onion, and today, I wondered if the onion was a Brodiaea (because there was a label). There are a lot of labels in the Garry Oak Meadow garden, and most of them seem to not have the plants near them, maybe because the matching plants are not in bloom when I find the label and some other plants right there are in bloom. It would help in this garden and the alpine garden if the labels were to look more like what you see in plant shops, with a photo (like mini interpretive signs). I'll leave your generous offer to the folks who work at the garden.
The plants that are/were labeled as "Brodiaea coronaria" I think are actually labeled as Brodiaea sp. aff. coronaria. They were wild-collected from seed further south, and without any clue as to what they might be, that was best guess. They are actually a species of Dichelostemma, and they are/were going to be topped (flowers removed) and marked for transplant elsewhere as they don't belong in the Garry Oak. (they would have if they were actually B. coronaria).
Hmm, that black label should be blue, no, @Eric La Fountaine -- a temporary nursery label that accompanies the plant until a permanent black or temporary red gets affixed.
I thought I had replied to this thread, but apparently not. The label in that last image is a blue label, not black. The determination qualifiers (cf. aff.) do not come through on the nursery labels.
Ah. Blue labels are ones we use in the nursery (you'll see it has less information on it, but with numbers from most sides so that it can be stuck in a pot in different ways) that accompany the plant into the garden until the proper black (or red) label can be generated.
And I have found the label for Allium cernuum var. cernuum. Really I'm posting this because these unopened flower heads are so nifty.
