Garlic: An Herb Society of America Guide
Description
Garlic – Allium sativum
Formerly classified in the lily (Liliaceae) family, garlic is now a member of the Alliaceae (84, 85) and is related to onions
(Allium cepa), chives (Allium schoenoprasum) and ornamentals like star of Persia
(Allium cristophii). Although many plants include
"garlic" as part of their common names, only plants in the
genus Allium with the specific epithet sativum are
true garlics. Plants like garlic chives (Allium tuberosum)
have a mild garlic flavor but are not really garlic. Elephant garlic
(Allium ampeloprasum), which closely resembles true garlic
but has very large cloves and a milder flavor, is actually a type
of leek.
hardneck bulb (left), softneck
bulb (right) and hardneck flower
stalk (top) |
Most people think of garlic as a bulb made up of cloves.
This is the portion of the plant we all experience in kitchens,
restaurants and grocery stores. Garlic bulbs can range in size from
1.5 to 3 inches in diameter depending on variety and cultivar (25)
and can have from 4-60 cloves of various shapes and sizes
(25, 46, 70). Cloves are enclosed in a white or pink-purple tinged
papery membrane and are actually swollen "specialized leaves" (25).
Garlic plants also have 6-12 flat, narrow "regular"
leaves and can reach from just under 10 inches to over 6 feet in height (21, 70, 71, 82).
hardneck garlic scape and umbel |
There are two basic types of garlic: hardneck and softneck.
Hardneck garlics are characterized by hard, woody central stalks
that extend down to the basal plate at the bottom
of the bulb (59). They send up a flower stalk (scape) and umbel
covered by a pointed spathe (46). In the
A. sativum var.ophioscorodon hardneck variety,
the scape curls or loops. The umbel contains a cluster of
greenish-white or pink flowers from which aerial cloves called
bulbils develop (46, 70). Bulbils are generally smaller than cloves
but, like cloves, can vary in size and number.
Softneck garlics are thought to have evolved from hardneck garlics
(25, 70). Softnecks have a non-woody pseudostem formed from
overlapping leaf sheaths and rarely send up a flower stalk,
unless stressed by climatic conditions (76). If you've purchased
garlic at the grocery store it was probably a softneck cultivar,
since softnecks make up the majority of the U.S. commercial crop.
Garlic is a perennial that is for the most part grown as an annual.
Although garlic plants can flower, they have sterile pollen and don't
produce fertile seed (except, rarely, in research laboratories) (76).
Garlic is primarily cultivated, but can also reproduce naturally when
bulbils fall or bulbs left in the ground break apart into individual
cloves (46). For information on growing garlic, see the Cultivation section of this guide.
There is some debate about garlic's taxonomy (25, 68 cited in 67, 70, 82).
Garlic was at one time known as Allium controversum (12, 66),
which hints at the problems classifying the herb. Most sources recognize
one major hardneck variety, A. sativum var. ophioscorodon,
and one major softneck variety, A. sativum var. sativum.
One other little-known variety, A. sativum var. pekinense
(Peking garlic) also exists (70), but most gardeners won't be able to
experience this variety firsthand, and information about it is difficult
to locate. In the garlic trade, garlics are often separated further into
groups based on shared traits, but these are not an official part of
garlic's taxonomy and nomenclature. Groups referenced in the trade
include Rocambole, Silverskin, Purple Striped, Artichoke and
Porcelain. To complicate matters, these groups are sometimes called
"varieties" in seed catalogs, but this is a horticultural
distinction, and they are not varieties in the botanical sense.
See the Varieties and Cultivars sections of this guide for additional information.
Next topic: Chemistry &
Nutrition
Previous Page | Next Page
Back to Contents
|
