The garlic clove consists of two mature leaves and a vegetative bid. The outer-most protective leaf forms a sheath around the whole clove, and has a surface layer of tough fibers. This sheath becomes thin, dry and dead at maturity. Within the protective leaf is a single storage leaf, a thickened shealth which accounts for almost the entire bluk of the clove. Within and at the base of this storage leaf are several very small leaves which form the bud of the next year's growth.
Garlic clones are extremely variable and many strikingly distinct ones are in cultivation.
So far as known none of them produce seed. If one of these is planted under favorable conditions, it results in the usual composite bulb. A distinctive feature of garlic is it odor, Organic sulphur compounds are responsible. These compounds also provide potent antibacterial properties. Allicin is the antibacterial substance of garlic and has the typical odor of fresh garlic.