Onion

:For the parody newspaper, see The Onion.

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Onion in the general sense can be used for any plant in the Genus Allium but used without qualifiers usually means Allium cepa L., also called the garden onion. Onions (usually but not exclusively the bulbs) are edible with a distinctive strong flavour and pungent odour which is mellowed and sweetened by cooking. They generally have a papery outer skin over a fleshy, layered inner core. Used worldwide for culinary purposes, they come in a wide variety of forms and colors.

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Onions may be grown from seed or very commonly from "sets". Onion sets are produced by sowing seed very thickly one year, resulting in stunted plants which produce very small bulbs. These bulbs are very easy to set out and grow into mature bulbs the following year, but they have the reputation of producing a less durable bulb than onions grown directly from seed and thinned.

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Either planting method may be used to produce spring onions or green onions, which are just onions harvested while immature, although "green onion" is also a common name for the Welsh onion, Allium fistulosum which never produces dry bulbs.

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Onions are frequently used in school science laboratories because they have particularly large cells which are easily visible even through rather low-end optical microscopes. See how to prepare an onion cell slide for details.

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L.: REDIRECT Carl Linnaeus...

Bulb: A bulb is an underground vertical shoot that has modified leaves (or thickened leaf bases) that are used as food storage organs by a dormant plant. Other types of storage organs (such as corms, rhizomes, and tubers) are sometimes erroneously referred to as bulbs. The correct term for plants that for...

Cooking: Cooking is the act of preparing food for consumption. It encompasses a vast range of methods, tools and combinations of ingredients to improve the flavour and/or digestibility of food. It generally requires the selection, measurement and combining of ingredients in an ordered procedure in an effort ...

Onion related Images and Photos (experimental)

Onion Sets	Onion Goggles	Onion Ring Mints	Sprouting Onion Bulbs Allium
The Onion: America's Finest News Source	The Onion: America's Finest News Source Babydoll	The Onion: America's Finest News Source Babydoll	The Onion America's Finest News Source T-Shirt
The Onion News Blackout 2012 Desk Calendar	The Onion I Didn't Mean to Lead You On T-Shirt	The Onion Information Downturn 2011 Desk Calendar	Close-Up of Onion Compote in a Bowl and Glasses