Garlic chives, also known as Chinese chives, Chinese leek, Ku chai or Nira is a relatively new vegetable in the English-speaking world. The plant has a distinctive growth habit with strap-shaped leaves unlike either onion or garlic and straight thin white-flowering stalks that are much taller than the leaves.
Chives are grown for their leaves, which are used for culinary purposes as condiment, which provide a somewhat milder flavour than its neighbouring Allium species.
Chives are one of the "fines herbes" of French cuisine, which also include tarragon, chervil and/or parsley.
Chives are also rich in vitamin A and C, as well as trace amounts of sulfur and iron, both needed by the body.
Chives, collected from the wild since antiquity and cultivated by gardeners since the Middle Ages, is a hardy, spreading, herbaceous perennial that grows to about 70 cm (28 inches) tall.
Garlicchives, a native of Asia, is not as winter-hardy as chives.
Garlicchives' leaves are flat, solid, and paler green than those of chives, and taste and smell of mild garlic, with a sweetish undertone.
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