Title image above is copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos

First published 9th March 2025

One night I grabbed a normal-sized garlic bulb for dinner, and found it to be impossible to separate any cloves from it — the entire bulb turned out to be a single clove!


copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos


copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos

Here is a vertical (or longitudinal/saggital) section:


copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos

Let’s increase the black level in this image so as to bring out more contrast:


copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos

Let’s compare with a labelled longitudinal section of a bulb with cloves:


copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos

And here’s the monobulb also labelled:


copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos

You can see how the monobulb comes to a smooth, closed tip at the top in all images, while this is not the case for the regular bulb — it is more open due to the flower stalk having pushed through the surrounding and developing cloves.

Development within the monobulb stopped prematurely at some point, about halfway through its normal growth cycle. A single clove was able to grow to a normal bulb size, but sometimes after that something occurred which ceased further formation of both cloves and the flower stalk.

But what is this in the middle of that larger clove?


copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos

Let’s get a better sample:


copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos

And really crank up the black level:


copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos

And the cycle repeats:


copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos