Bulbs 1.5-2.5(-3) × 1.2-2 cm. Scape 24-60 cm. Flowers: tepals: outer 4.5-6 mm, inner 6-7 mm, margins ± erose, apex acuminate to long-acuminate; anthers mostly purple; stigma distinctly 3-lobed; pedicel 8-22 mm. 2n = 14. Flowering Jun--Jul. Heavy serpentine clay; 400--700 m; Calif. Allium sanbornii var. congdonii is known only from the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.