Short answers, pulled from the story.
The word garlic derives from Old English garlēac, meaning gar, or spear, and leek, describing a spear-shaped leek. This linguistic clue hints at the plant's physical form, which has been cultivated for thousands of years across the globe.
Garlic is a species of bulbous flowering plants in the genus Allium, native to central and south Asia, stretching from the Black Sea through the southern Caucasus, northeastern Iran, and the Hindu Kush. It also grows wild in parts of Mediterranean Europe.
Numerous cuneiform records show that garlic has been cultivated in Mesopotamia for at least 4,000 years. The use of garlic in China and Egypt also dates back thousands of years.
The scent of garlic is known to linger upon the human body and cause bad breath and body odor. This is caused by allyl methyl sulfide, a volatile liquid which is absorbed into the blood during the metabolism of garlic-derived sulfur compounds.
China is by far the largest producer, accounting for over two thirds (73%) of the world's supply in 2021. In 2023, world production of garlic was 29 million tonnes, with China accounting for 72% of the total.
Nearly all of the garlic in cultivation is propagated asexually by planting individual cloves in the ground. There are different varieties of garlic, most notably split into the subspecies of hardneck garlic and softneck garlic.