Onions vs. Green Onions, Scallions, Spring Onions or Bunching Onions, Explained

By Erin Marissa Russell

If you’ve done any reading on onions, it’s evident that people are quite confused about the differences and divisions between bulb onions versus green onions, scallions, spring onions, bunching onions, and all the other terms for various alliums, genus allium. There are a lot of onion types to keep up with. And even worse, there’s a lot of misnaming going on, which makes it even more confusing.

For example, it’s a common misconception that “scallion,” “spring onion,” “green onion,” and all the names for those little onions with long green shoots on top simply refer to regular old bulb onions or garden onions harvested early, when they’re still small, sweet, and haven’t yet formed significant bulbs. Another common yet inaccurate belief is that scallions, spring onions, and green onions are all names for the same plant.

Even shallots get pulled into the conversation sometimes. To be clear, shallots are an entirely different vegetable and a relative of the onion family. In terms of flavor shallots are somewhere between onions and garlic.

An article in the Illinois times points out that though scallions and shallots are different, “the definition of ‘scallion’ in some non-culinary dictionaries is ‘shallot.’ This misnomer probably occurs because ‘échalion’ is another name for the shallot, derived from the French ‘échalote.’” The Latin botanical name for shallots is Allium cepa gr. aggregatum, though they used to be categorized as Allium ascalonicum and are sometimes still referred to by this name.

Chives are another part of the allium family that gets mixed up with some of the onion types fairly frequently. Sometimes, people think that green onions, scallions, spring onions, and chives are all the same thing—or they may have a few of these terms confused with one another. Chives are the smallest of the onions, with the Latin botanical name Allium schoenoprasum. These have hollow green stems that resemble the green tops of scallions or green onions, just in miniature.

You’re probably used to seeing the green part of fresh chives mixed into sour cream dips, adorning baked potatoes, or used to flavor meat dishes, like salmon or chicken, as part of a marinade or sauce. The flavor of chives is similar to that of its larger onion cousins but with a much milder flavor. Because they’re used as a flavoring or seasoning and not really a main component of any dish, chives are classified as an herb instead of a vegetable, like the rest of the onions we’re discussing. However, they are fairly interchangeable with scallions or green onions in recipes. The larger onions will just bring more of that oniony flavor to the dish than chives would.

The words we were just using to discuss the flavor of onions, sweet, mild, and pungent (or strong), are another way you’ll see them classified, especially when shopping for onion seeds. Sometimes, the pungent flavored onions are called American onions instead, while mild or sweet onions might be referred to as European onions.

Once you start to delve into onion research, you’ll no doubt find that many sources contradict one another. Due to this confusion, the information you’ll find here has relied on the USDA PLANTS Database, Global Biodiversity Information Facility, and universities and agricultural extension offices to make final calls where conflicting sources muddy the waters. To clear things up, here’s a breakdown of the differences between bulb onions, green onions, spring onions, scallions, bunching onions, multiplier onions, and the other allium varieties that tend to get confused with one another.

Ways of Describing and Discussing Onion Varieties

We sometimes refer to onions by the onion bulb color, as white onions, yellow or brown onions, and red or purple onions. However, these designations describe more than just the shade of the onion. Yellow onions are the most common and the best for caramelizing due to their mild taste. Most of the common varieties of sweet onions are yellow, though not all yellow onions are sweet onions and not all sweet onions are yellow. (More on that later.) Yellow onions may be sweet, mild, or have a more pungent flavor depending on the specific variety.

White onions are the ones you see diced in Mexican cuisine, such as in pico de gallo, or chopped into potato salad. They’re also used to make white sauce. White varieties tend to have a stronger flavor than yellow onions, with more of a spicy component to them. Red onions can be sweet, mild, or pungent in flavor. They tend to be used in raw applications to top burgers or sandwiches, and you’ll also find them in roasted vegetable dishes or chopped into salads.

You’ll run across other specialty onion categories, each with their own terminology. Types include Cipollini onions, pickling onions, Maui onions, Spanish onions, storage onions, sweet onions, and Vidalia onions. There’s some crossover in the varieties. (For example, Maui and Vidalia onions are certain types of sweet onion; some storage onions are Spanish or pickling onions.) We’ve broken all this down in the sections below.

Bulb Onions (Allium cepa L.)

Bulb onions are also sometimes called garden onions or may be referred to by their color, as white onions, yellow onions, and red or purple onions. Bulb onions grow for one season and are harvested before the next, when they would otherwise bolt or flower and go to seed. These are the onions with large bulbs [https://www.gardeningchannel.com/grow-bigger-onions/], around the size of a baseball or bigger.

Bulb onions can be categorized as either long day, short day, or day neutral along with their other identifying terms. These words have to do with the way onions are cultivated and refer to how many hours of sunlight the onions need to bulb.

Long day types need 14.5 or more hours of daily sun to create their bulbs, while short day onions can make a bulb with 12 to 13 hours of daily sunshine. Short day varieties tend to have a milder taste and are also generally appropriate for storage.

Types called day neutral can be counted on to form bulbs regardless of how much sun they get, so they’re suited to be grown in any region, regardless of the climate. If a long or short day onion doesn’t get enough sun to bulb, the gardener will end up with a crop of green onions that won’t grow any larger.

Sweet Onions

Yellow onions are sometimes called sweet onions, though true sweet onions are only available at the end of summer stretching into fall. Sweet onions have more sugar than most onions, along with higher water content and less of the sulfur compounds and pyruvic acids that give onions their characteristic stink, sharp oniony bite, and bring tears to your eyes when onions are cut. More than other onions, sweet onions can be susceptible to bruising or cuts in their skin. These are widely considered the best of the bulb onions to eat raw.

Texas onions, Maui onions, and Vidalia onions are all types of sweet onions that originated in the area they’re named for. Most people will think of yellow onions when you refer to a sweet onion, although red and white varieties are out there. The red sweet onions and white sweet onions just aren’t nearly as prevalent as the yellow types. Some well-known sweet onion varieties are listed down below.

Red Sweet Onions

Bronze d’ Amposta
Cipolle di Tropea
Red Candy Apple
Monastrell

White Sweet Onions

Texas Early White
Siskiyou Sweet
White Sweet Spanish

Yellow Sweet Onions

Big Daddy
Candy
Copra
Expression
Hermiston Sweet
Miss Megan
Sapelo Sweet
Savannah Sweet
Superex
Sweet Sandwich Hybrid
Texas Legend
Texas Super Sweet 1015Y
Vidalia
Walla Walla
Yellow Granex
Yellow Sweet Spanish
Zoey (sometimes called a white onion, but has yellow skin)

Vidalia Onions

Some people call all sweet onions Vidalias, although by federal order, the only ones that can really be called Vidalias are a certain type of sweet onion grown in Georgia. Vidalia onions include the varieties Texas Early Grano and Yellow Granex. All Vidalia onions are yellow.

Spanish Onions

Spanish onions can be either yellow or red. These onion varieties are known for their large size and mild, sweet flavor. You’ll see them most often sliced raw and served on sandwiches, in salads, or to garnish a dish. We’ve listed some common Spanish onion types below.

Alisa Craig
Big Daddy
California Sweet (also called Sweet Imperial)
Candy
Delgado
Expression
Lasso
Latin Lover
Mira
Red Burgermaster
Red Karmen
Red River
Riverside Sweet
Ruby Ring
Scout
Siskiyou Sweet
SV6646NW (a Spanish onion hybrid)
Walla Walla Sweet Spanish
White Spanish Bunching
White Sweet Spanish
White Sweet Spanish Utah
Yellow Sweet Spanish

Cipollini Onions

Cipollini onions are an Italian variety that have a distinctive flat shape, oblong bulb and small size—about equal to a golf ball. Once solely the domain of fine dining or gourmet food stores, they’re becoming more widely available all the time. These onions can be either red, white, or yellow, and they’re known for their sweetness. You’ll usually find them either sliced and caramelized or roasted whole. Some popular varieties are listed here.

Red Cipollini Onions

Flat of Italy
Red Marble

White Cipollini Onions

Bianca di Maggio

Yellow Cipollini Onions

Gold Coin
Yellow Borettana

Pickling Onions

Some onions are named after how they’re used. For example, pickling onions are varieties proven to be good for pickling. That means they need to be small, so pickling onions are often pearl onions, Chinese onions, or potato onions, too. A list follows of common pickling onion varieties.

White Pickling Onions

Barletta

Crystal White Wax (also called Crystal Wax Pickling, White Bermuda, Crystal Wax Bermuda, or White Pickling)
Onion de Paris
Pacific Pearl
Pearl Drop
Southport White Globe
White Ebenezer

Storage Onions / Keeping Onions

Another onion category named for their usage are the storage onions or keeping onions, which are heirloom or hybrid onions bred to be cured or dried in the sun for storage so they will keep for months over the winter, sometimes in attractive onion braids. Storage onions tend to be long-day varieties. These are best grown in northern states. Gardeners in southern states tend to grow short-day varieties, though, and have ones best suited for keeping that are referred to as storage onions, too.

Yellow onions are most likely to be storage onions, but there are some red and white varieties also used for storage. These onions have an especially pungent flavor and tend to be the ones that will bring tears to your eyes when they’re sliced into due to their high sulfur content. Storage or keeping onions also tend to have thicker skins and lower water content than other onion varieties.

There is a selection of storage onion varieties listed below, divided by color.

Yellow Storage Onions

Australian Brown
Bridger
Clear Dawn
Copra
Cortland
Dakota Tears
Duration
Expression
Frontier
Gate Keeper
Gunnison
Hi Keeper
Keepsake
Maximus
Newburg
New York Early
Patterson
Pontiac
Powell
Stuttgarter Yellow
Sweet Sandwich Hybrid
Talon
Tough Ball
Vision
Yankee
Yellow Borrettana (a Cipollini onion)
Yellow Globe Danvers
Yellow of Parma

White Storage Onions

Southport White Globe
Stuttgarter
White Ebenezer
White Sweet Spanish

Red Storage Onions

Bennie’s Red
Brunswick
Cabernet
Desert Sunrise
Electric
Monastrell
Red Bull
Red Carpet
Red Creole
Red Wind
Red Zeppelin
Rossa di Milano
Red Marble
Redwing
Ruby Red
Ruby Ring
Southport Red Globe

Green Onions

Green onions aren’t a particular cultivar, but instead are any type of onion that is harvested prior to bulbing. They’re the ones you see in the produce department sold in a bunch, and they’re almost always served raw. Occasionally, green onions may be grilled, however, and in Asian cuisine, they’re used in cooked dishes like fried rice or the scallion pancake.

Gardeners may use the onions they thin out of their bed when they’re growing bulb onions as green onions in the kitchen so the young plants don’t go to waste. In everyday usage, you’ll hear green onions, spring onions, scallions, bulbing onions, or any small variety called green onions fairly frequently.

Spring Onions

Spring onions are a whole lot like green onions, so it’s no surprise that the terms get mixed up all the time. However, spring onions have larger bulbs than green onions do. Sometimes, what we call a spring onions is an immature bulbing onion that has been left to grow longer than it would be if it were called a green onion. These are sold in bunches like green onions are and are used in the kitchen in the same way. They may also be referred to as salad onions. Seeds that are sold as spring onions are referred to that way because they are often used as spring onions or because they make particularly good spring onions, although if left to mature they will be a variety of bulbing onion. The list below includes onions that are commonly grown as spring onions.

Dynasty Winter King
Feast
Rossa Lunga di Firenze
Straightleaf
Summer King

Scallions

Scallions do not produce a bulb as they grow and therefore look like very small and immature green onions. The terms are used interchangeably, and scallions, spring onions, and green onions can be substituted in recipes without issue. Scallions have an especially mild flavor and grow in sandy loam.

Although you’ll see immature bulbing onions or other immature onions sold as scallions and referred to as such, scallions are varieties that have been bred for a long white shank before the green leaves begin. Their green leaves are also more tender than bulbing onion varieties. So although scallions are classified as Allium cepa like bulbing onions, they are cultivars that have been bred for their tender leaves, mild flavor, long white shank, and tendency not to bulb when harvested in their immature form. We’ve listed a few scallion types below.

Evergreen Hardy White
Guardsman (a bunching onion and bulbing scallion hybrid)
Kincho

Pearl Onions (Allium ampeloprasum)

Pearl onions are also called mini onions, and they’re teeny tiny, about half an inch in diameter. Pearl onions are always white, and they’re dried, then used in stews, braised dishes, and with meat. They’re pickled and sold as cocktail onions, too, to be used in the Gibson cocktail. A few pearl onion varieties are in the list that follows.

Eclipse
Pompeii
Red Marble

Bunching Onions (Allium fistulosum)

True bunching onions are Allium fistulosum, but you’ll also see small-bulbed versions of Allium cepa called bunching onions very commonly. These are also called Welsh onions or Japanese onions. Varieties of bunching onions are listed here.

Apache
Beltsville Bunching
Cipollotto da Mazzi
Crimson Forest
Deep Purple
Eclipse
Evergreen (also called Evergreen Bunching, Evergreen Hardy, Evergreen Hardy Bunching, and Evergreen Spring Bunching)
Fukagawa
Guardsman (a bunching onion and bulbing scallion hybrid)
Heshiko
Ishikura
Japanese Bunching
Nabechan
Nebuka Evergreen
Pacific Pearl
Parade
Pearl Drop
Red Beard
Red Bird
Santa Claus
Scarlet Bandit
Southport White Globe
Summer Island
Tokyo Long
Warrior
White Lisbon
White Spanish
White Spear
Winter Over

Despite the official categories, you should be aware that due to widespread muddling of the divisions between these species, the way these words are actually used by real people (both in conversation and in online or written sources) varies widely from the accurate definitions. Most people you’ll encounter will be using the terms pretty much interchangeably—especially when it comes to the words “scallion,” “green onion,” and “spring onion”.

As gardeners, however, we know that you need to be certain the care instructions you’re reading apply to the type of onion you are growing. The good news is that when it comes to the big picture of maintenance, these vegetables have very similar needs and preferences. Where they vary tends instead to be in their growth habits, such as whether they’ll ever form bulbs or the days to maturity. And now that you’re well informed about which of these plants are which, even if a seed packet, website, or other source is using the wrong term, you’ll be knowledgeable enough to sort it all out and be confident in the choices you make for the plants in your garden.