porrum), and may be distinguished from common onions by having only a single storage leaf,[3] similar to cloves of garlic.

[4] Pearl onions are cultivated mostly in Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy,[5] usually in home gardens,[1] although formerly on a commercial scale.

[10][11][better source needed] The majority of onions grown for pickling are common onions (A. cepa),[12] which are normally much larger, but are grown to a small size suitable for pickling by planting them so densely that each one has very little room to grow.

[10] Common onions grown from seed to produce small bulbs for pickling are ready to harvest in 90 days.

[10][11] Larry Wall's yearly State of the Onion speeches about advancements in Perl programming, an allusion to the many layers of the language, are named as a pun both on the pearl onion and the U.S. president's State of the Union addresses.