{"id":3807,"date":"2016-12-09T13:42:26","date_gmt":"2016-12-09T13:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.reading.ac.uk\/crg\/?p=3807"},"modified":"2016-12-09T13:42:26","modified_gmt":"2016-12-09T13:42:26","slug":"advent-botany-2016-day-9-getting-stuffed-at-christmas-the-onion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/herbarium\/2016\/12\/09\/advent-botany-2016-day-9-getting-stuffed-at-christmas-the-onion\/","title":{"rendered":"Advent Botany 2016 – Day 9: Getting stuffed at Christmas – the Onion"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rachel Webster<\/a><\/h1>\n
\"Gerard's<\/a>
Gerard’s Herball had much to say about Onions (@Aristolochia)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not much of a surprise here, but after covering\u00a0sage<\/a>\u00a0yesterday we really had to say a few words about onions today. If you want\u00a0to be growing your own, then John Gerard’s Herball\u00a0suggests\u00a0that ‘The onion requireth a fat ground well <\/em>digged and <\/em>dunged.’<\/em>\u00a0 However, as they are prone to\u00a0rots and mildews, it might be better to go with\u00a0some more\u00a0modern horticultural advice<\/a>\u00a0in this instance! Gerard\u00a0also reports that ‘it is cherished <\/em>everie where in kitchen gardens…’<\/em> and that certainly hasn’t changed much since the 16th century. It’s fair to say that most of my cooking starts with an onion or two, despite the fact that I only have to look at one for it to make me cry.<\/p>\n

Chopping the onion up damages the cells and causes the release of enzymes and compounds that results in the production of\u00a0the eye-irritating\u00a0chemical\u00a0\u00a0with the catchy name\u00a0syn<\/em>-Propanethial\u00a0S<\/em>-oxide<\/a>\u00a0(try\u00a0Scientific American<\/a>\u00a0for more detail). [Editor’s note: the popular chemistry blog Compound Interest<\/a> also explains the chemistry of onion].<\/p>\n

\"Allium<\/a>
Allium cepa<\/i>: One of some 600000 flowering plant specimens at MANCH<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you want to preserve your onion for posterity, it’s the sort of structure which would benefit from being kept as a spirit specimen, but we do have plenty of onion species in the herbarium collections. The Herbarium Handbook (Bridson and Foreman, 1999) recommends slicing bulbs in half before pressing them. Otherwise, the bulb will still be alive in the press and may start to sprout. In 1866, the person who prepared this herbarium sheet\u00a0chose leave the outside layers of the bulb and remove all of the\u00a0flesh\u00a0from the inside. This will have made it possible to press it, but I only hope they did this somewhere with good ventilation!<\/p>\n

\"Chopped<\/a>
Chopped onion – enough to make you cry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The onion has\u00a0fleshy leaf bases (scales) which surround the budding new plant, and has papery outer layers known as tunics which protect the bulb.\u00a0A\u00a0bulb allows a\u00a0plant to\u00a0store food reserves so that it can survive a period of dormancy through adverse weather (such as wet, cold winter in the UK, or hot dry Mediterranean summers). This sort of plant is called a geophyte, as the plant’s stores are often underground,\u00a0where they are better protected from frost, drought or the prying eyes of herbivores. Personally, over the holidays I shall be trying my best to be dormant on the sofa with a good supply of chocolate to see me through the dark and the cold.<\/p>\n

For more on onions and the incredible plant collections at MANCH visit Herbology Manchester<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rachel Webster Not much of a surprise here, but after covering\u00a0sage\u00a0yesterday we really had to say a few words about onions today. If you want\u00a0to be growing your own,…Read More ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[52,53,54],"tags":[114,163,161,164,162],"class_list":["post-3807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent","category-herbarium-rng","category-public-engagement-with-science","tag-aristolochia","tag-manch","tag-manchester","tag-onion","tag-rachel-webster"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAdvent Botany 2016 - Day 9: Getting stuffed at Christmas - the Onion - Herbarium RNG<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/herbarium\/2016\/12\/09\/advent-botany-2016-day-9-getting-stuffed-at-christmas-the-onion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Advent Botany 2016 - Day 9: Getting stuffed at Christmas - the Onion - Herbarium RNG\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Rachel Webster Not much of a surprise here, but after covering\u00a0sage\u00a0yesterday we really had to say a few words about onions today. 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