Plant Identification Learning Module:
Vegetables

Onion (Allium cepa)

Onions grow as single plants or in bunches. Leaves are slender, dark green and the tuber becomes red, white, yellow or purple and thickened or bulbous. Bases have a thin papery covering. The base varies from pencil size to round, oblong, top-shaped or flat. Fibrous roots extend from the bottom. Seeds are small and black resembling tiny chips of coal.


Onions
Purdue (courtesy of National Gardening Bureau)

Onions growing in a row
Purdue

Onion flower
National Junior Horticulture Association

Onion seeds compare in size to a penny
Stephen R. King, Department of Horticultural Sciences, Texas A&M University