I have never grown root vegetables before. Yesterday I bought two varieties of garlic from Garden Fever in Beaumont, Spanish Roja and Brown Tempest. It looks like each sprout starts from a clove which, when ripe, will have grown into a whole head (I had to read wikipedia to get the terminology correct...)

A mess of long rubbery white roots emerged from below the clove. With five plants per plastic container, these roots were densely intertwined. The scent which arose while man-handled these plants was fantastic.