Allium sativum, known as garlic, from William Woodville, Medical Beet skins edible, 1793. Allium sativum is a perennial flowering plant growing from a bulb. The leaf blade is flat, linear, solid, and approximately 1.

The plant may produce pink to purple flowers from July to September in the Northern Hemisphere. Identification of the wild progenitor of common garlic is difficult due to the sterility of its many cultivars, which limits the ability to cross test with wild relatives. Allium sativum grows in the wild in areas where it has become naturalized. There are two subspecies of A. Döll, called Ophioscorodon, or hard-necked garlic, includes porcelain garlics, rocambole garlic, and purple stripe garlics. It is sometimes considered to be a separate species, Allium ophioscorodon G.

There are at least 120 cultivars originating from Central Asia, making it the main center of garlic biodiversity. Garlic is easy to grow and can be grown year-round in mild climates. While sexual propagation of garlic is possible, nearly all of the garlic in cultivation is propagated asexually, by planting individual cloves in the ground. Garlic plants can be grown closely together, leaving enough space for the bulbs to mature, and are easily grown in containers of sufficient depth. When selecting garlic for planting, it is important to pick large bulbs from which to separate cloves. There are different varieties of garlic, most notably split into the subspecies of hardneck garlic and softneck garlic.