Garlic

Garlic
Garlic plants
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Liliopsida
Order:	Asparagales
Family:	Alliaceae
Subfamily:	Allioideae
Tribe:	Allieae
Genus:	Alli
Species:	A. sativum
Binomial name
Allium sativum L.

Garlic (species Allium sativum) is a type of plant that people eat for food.^[1] Garlic is related to onions, shallots, and leeks. It has a very strong flavor and smell. Most of the time, people use it as a flavoring so that it helps make food taste better.

Garlic is used as herbal medicine in the treatment of cold and flu.^[2] It has side effects of heartburn, flatulence and sweating.^[1]

The part of the garlic plant that people eat is called the head. It grows at the bottom of a long green stalk. People pull the head apart into smaller pieces called cloves of garlic. Cloves have papery skin on them. People peel off the skin before cooking the cloves.^[3]

People plant garlic in the fall right after the first frost. They plant the clove like a seed. One clove can grow into a whole head. The garlic plant grows its roots before the ground freezes for winter. People harvest (collect) the garlic in the middle of the next summer.

^[3]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} "Garlic". Oregon State University. 28 April 2014.
2. ↑ "Garlic". National Institutes of Health.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} "Growing garlic". The Old Farmer's Almanac. Retrieved July 16, 2020.