Know your Bulb Onion

Bulb Onion 'Stuttgarter'

• • The Bulb Onion, Allium cepa, also known as the "garden onion", of the same genus (Allium) as the chive (A. schoenoprasum), garlic (A. sativum), leek (A. porrum), and shallot (A. ascalonium).

  • Above ground, the bulb onion shows only a single vertical shoot; the bulb grows underground, and is used for energy storage, leading to the possibility of confusion with a tuber, which it is not.

  • Bulb onions are the common round onions we are familiar from the grocery store as opposed to non-bulb onions like scallions or leeks.

  • Bulb onions are tasty and healthy foods that do not take up a lot of space, yet keep reasonably well after harvesting.

  • Bulb onions are easy to grow and are a great crop to plant in the vegetable garden.

Know your Bulb Onions - Botany

• • Bulb onions are characterized by an edible bulb composed of food-storage leaves that are rich in sugar and a pungent oil, the source of its strong taste.

  • Among the hardiest and oldest garden-vegetable plants, onions bear a cluster of small, greenish white flowers on one or more leafless stalks.

  • The leaf base swells to form the underground mature edible onion.

  • Onions are pungent; because they contain a sulfur-rich volatile oil, peeling or slicing them can cause a person's eyes to tear.

  • Onions vary in size, shape, colour, and pungency. Though low in standard nutrients, they are valued for their flavour.

• The above-ground green leaves, typically long and tubular, are also eaten.

Know your Bulb Onions - Varieties

• • The onion (A. cepa), no longer found wild, is a biennial now grown in many varieties throughout the world as a table vegetable.

  • Common varieties include the strong-flavoured red onion, the milder yellow onion, and the bland white onion.

  • Pearl onions are small white onions used for pickling.

  • The large Spanish and Bermuda onions have a delicate flavour.

Know your Bulb Onions - Origins

• • Most onion species are believed to be native to SW Asia and are known to have been cultivated since ancient times.

  • The onion was grown extensively by the ancient Egyptians, in whose writings it is mentioned, and was later spread by the Spanish colonists.

Know your Bulb Onions - Uses

• • Onions have been claimed to cure colds, earaches, and laryngitis and have been used to treat animal bites, powder burns, and warts; like their close relative garlic, they are being studied for other suspected beneficial qualities.