Native to Central Asia and the Mediterranean. It belongs to the family Liliaceae and to the genus Allium.
Biennial plant, with short, slightly branched fasciculate root, hollow stem, elongated leaves at the base of which is the bulb, hermaphrodite flowers, small, greenish, white or violet and grouped into umbels and the fruit is a capsule containing the seeds.
It is a very widespread crop with an area of more than 2 million hectares and the most producing countries are Mexico, Republic of Korea and Japan.
