Species
+

Allium sativum L.

Agghia, Ai, Chirungu mudje, Mvudje, Cultivated Garlic

Climate known 71 photographs Bulb, tuber or caudex
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Garlic is a species of bulbous flowering plants in the genus Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chives, Welsh onion, and Chinese onion. Garlic is native to Central Asia, northeastern Iran and the foothills of Himalayas. It has naturalized in many other parts of the world, including Mediterranean Europe and China. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Garlic”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Allium

Allium is a large genus of monocotyledonous flowering plants with 1112 accepted species, making Allium the largest genus in the family Amaryllidaceae and among the largest plant genera in the world. Many of the species are edible, and some have a long history of cultivation and human consumption such as the onion, garlic, scallions, shallots, leeks, and chives.

Text from Wikipedia, “Allium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Amaryllidaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan +3
Wild records
79 in range· 53 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jul, mean day; nights 16 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
532mm/yr
9 wet months · peak Apr 76 mm (CHELSA)
Light
12–46DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by Amaryllidaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a winter growing season, February to May and October to December in the northern hemisphere (February to May and October to December at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 532 mm a year, wettest April at 76 mm, driest August at 14 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 12 to 46 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -13.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Allium arenarium Sadler; Allium arenarium Sadler ex Rchb.; Allium controversum Schrad.; Allium controversum Schrad. ex Willd.; Allium longicuspis Regel and 26 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by Amaryllidaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, February to May and October to December in the northern hemisphere (February to May and October to December at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (396 mm of 532 mm) falls in February to May and October to December, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 5.3 °C against a yearly mean of 9.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to June and August to November.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 532 mm a year, wettest April at 76 mm, driest August at 14 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

532 mm a year at the habitat, 396 mm of it February to May and October to December. Wettest month April at 76 mm, driest August at 14 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 301 mm to 1178 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 12 to 46 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 12 to 46 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 5, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -13.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -13.8 °C, the absolute minimum -24.6 °C, about 98 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -8.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells -17.6 °C to -2.6 °C), warmest day 28.2 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -13.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 50 to 58% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 0 °C in Jan to 28 °C in Jul; mean night from -9 °C in Jan to 16 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 532 mm of rain a year, most in Apr. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 72 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -24.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-40°-20°20°40°frost37.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)-24.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 12–46RH 50–58 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 72 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C0 / -10–62 / -8–88 / -2–1315 / 6–2020 / 14–2626 / 18–3228 / 21–3428 / 20–3323 / 16–2715 / 7–219 / -2–142 / -8–8
Night °C-9 / -18–-3-8 / -17–-2-2 / -12–24 / -4–99 / 1–1314 / 7–1816 / 9–2115 / 8–2010 / 3–154 / -3–9-3 / -10–4-7 / -16–-1
Rain mm43 / 21–11551 / 22–14463 / 23–16076 / 32–17665 / 30–13035 / 9–6723 / 6–6914 / 3–4721 / 6–4845 / 20–9348 / 25–12648 / 24–130
DLI15 / 7–1720 / 14–2328 / 23–3136 / 31–3941 / 37–4346 / 39–4746 / 37–4842 / 31–4534 / 22–3723 / 13–2515 / 7–1812 / 5–15
RH %58 / 52–7058 / 53–6557 / 54–6455 / 53–5853 / 49–5852 / 44–5650 / 43–5750 / 43–5751 / 44–5753 / 49–6056 / 52–6357 / 52–66

Each figure is the median across the 72 grid cells holding the 74 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 966:5000 (41.675, 70.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -24.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -13.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 72 distinct grid cells holding the 74 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 966:5000 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 41.50_70.000, lapse-corrected -617 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1073 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeKazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Sicilia, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Canary Is., Ethiopia, Seychelles, Amur, Primorye, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Turkey, China South-Central, Inner Mongolia, China North-Central, China Southeast, Korea, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Cambodia, Thailand, Illinois, Wisconsin, New York, Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mexico Central, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Galápagos
Kew's description“bulbous geophyte” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker41.567, 70.067 · in the densest population, 32 records (41% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 79 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 53 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 6 km away. 1409 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 5 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 79 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Allium sativumAllium sativumAllium sativumAllium sativumAllium sativumAllium sativumAllium sativumAllium sativum

Photographs: (c) Jay Pruett, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Sandy Wolkenberg, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Martin Scheuch, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); no rights reserved · CC0.

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Allium sativum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research
A Antonyan, Svetlana Sharoyan, H. Harutyunyan, Luciano Barboni (2025) · International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research
Mechanisms of plant defense against insect herbivores
Abdul Rashid War, Michael Gabriel Paulraj, Tariq Ahmad, Abdul Ahad Buhroo (2012) · Plant Signaling & Behavior
Essential Oils in Food Preservation: Mode of Action, Synergies, and Interactions with Food Matrix Components
Morten Hyldgaard, Tina Mygind, Rikke Louise Meyer (2012) · Frontiers in Microbiology
Toxicity of lead: a review with recent updates
Gagan D. Flora, Deepesh Gupta, Archana Tiwari (2012) · Interdisciplinary Toxicology
Effect of Essential Oils on Pathogenic Bacteria
Filomena Nazzaro, Florinda Fratianni, Laura De Martino, Raffaele Coppola (2013) · Pharmaceuticals
Heavy metals in food crops: Health risks, fate, mechanisms, and management
Prabhat Kumar, Sang Soo Lee, Ming Zhang, Yiu Fai Tsang (2019) · Environment International
Medicinal plants of India with anti-diabetic potential
J.K Grover, Savita Yadav, V Vats (2002) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Intracavitary Bacillus Calmette-guerin in the Treatment of Superficial Bladder Tumors
Álvaro Morales, David Eidinger, Andrew W. Bruce (1976) · The Journal of Urology
A comparative ethnobotany of Khevsureti, Samtskhe-Javakheti, Tusheti, Svaneti, and Racha-Lechkhumi, Republic of Georgia (Sakartvelo), Caucasus
Rainer W. Bussmann, Narel Y. Paniagua-Zambrana, Shalva Sikharulidze, Zaal Kikvidze (2016) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Oxidative stress and male infertility—a clinical perspective
Kelton Tremellen (2008) · Human Reproduction Update
Role of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in Plant Growth Regulation: Implications in Abiotic Stress Tolerance
Naheeda Begum, Cheng Qin, Muhammad Abass Ahanger, Sajjad Raza (2019) · Frontiers in Plant Science

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Allium 12 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 188 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.