Garlic or Onion: how to tell them apart?
Garlic and Onion look alike and are often mixed up. Here is how to tell them apart, feature by feature, with their photos and the details to look for.
⚡ The quick answer
Garlic
Allium sativum
Onion
Allium cepa
Garlic forms flat, strap-like leaves arising from a head of several cloves, whereas onion has tubular, hollow leaves arising from a single round bulb.
🍃 Leaves
Linear, flat, glaucous green
Cylindrical, hollow, blue-green
🌸 Flowers
White to pinkish, in an umbel, often accompanied by bulbils
White to greenish, in a dense spherical umbel
🍎 Fruits
Capsule rarely formed; propagation mainly by bulbils (cloves)
Capsule with angular black seeds
🪵 Bark
Bulb made up of several cloves enclosed in white tunics, rigid flower stalk.
Globose bulb with dry tunics, yellow, red or white depending on the variety
📏 Size
40 to 60 cm tall in flower
40 to 100 cm tall in flower
🗺️ Habitat
Grown in vegetable gardens, light, free-draining soils
Grown in vegetable gardens worldwide
⚠️ Toxicity
No known toxicity to humans — bulb edible; toxic in large quantities to dogs and cats
No known toxicity to humans — edible bulb; toxic to dogs and cats
🔎 And from the Onion side
Garlic forms flat, strap-like leaves arising from a head of several cloves, whereas onion has tubular, hollow leaves arising from a single round bulb.
🌿 Go further
Want to practise spotting these details on real photos? Floraneo offers profiles and quizzes for dozens of look-alike species.
ℹ️ Educational profile — do not use it to judge whether a plant is edible or safe.