Robert,
I doubt very much that this photo is correctly labelled. (I'm suspicious of the other one too.) The form of Allium obliquum is very different than shown, with the fairly broad leaves alternating up the stems, and the flowers are yellow-green, not whitish as in the photo. I'll dig out some photos of the real thing and post them later.
Lori

Edit: Here also is a description and illustration of it - note the stem leaves:
http://www.efloras.org/florata...

There I go again, trusting that the Botanical Gardens had them labeled correctly. After reading the description at eflora, I'm now completely unsure.

I have been to botanical gardens that have mislabeled tags so it's not that uncommon, human error.

A common thing indeed... plants die or are moved, and I suppose these places sometimes don't have the trained manpower to keep up. Adding to it, the allium experts on other forums have pointed out that there are many alliums species whose ID's have been misrepresented in the literature and photo record through time, although I don't think that's the case with this one, which is quite distinctive.

Yes, I've seen even common plants mislabeled in botanical gardens before. I keep hoping DNA tech reaches the point where most biological organisms can be properly ID'd easily and cheaply. It'll get there eventually, but it's an awfully slow process creating so many profiles and then developing the tech that would allow 'anyone' and 'everyone' the ability to sort these things out.

A lot easier to just find plant descriptions and match them up (or not) to the plant in question, if necessary. First stop, though, can be checking the photo record. Most plant IDs don't really require DNA testing.

growitall said:A lot easier to just find plant descriptions and match them up (or not) to the plant in question, if necessary. First stop, though, can be checking the photo record. Most plant IDs don't really require DNA testing.

I used to be involved in taxonomic work regarding tarantula species many years ago. Now, I know spiders are not plants...but you have to believe me when I say that sometimes comparative study and observation are NOT enough. Especially when the folks with PhD's can't agree...

DNA profiling would be 100% accurate. Take human error and/or bias out of the equation.