Garlic-chive flowers (Allium tuberosum), known in Chinese as jiu cai hua and sold as flowering chives, gau choy fa or Chinese leek flower, are the tender flowering stems and unopened buds of the garlic-chive plant — grown and eaten as a stir-fry vegetable in their own right rather than as leaves or garnish. Where the flat blades of the garlic chive are chopped fine into fillings, the flower stalks are harvested young, while the round scapes are still crisp and the bud clusters still tight and green, and are cut into batons for the wok. They snap like a slim green bean, carry a clean, sweet, gently garlicky flavour milder than the leaf, and hold their crunch through quick high-heat cooking, which is why they are prized stir-fried with pork, beef, squid, prawns or firm tofu across southern China, Taiwan and much of Southeast Asia. A distinct market vegetable from the leaf garlic chive and from the pale, blanched yellow chive, they are one of three prized forms the single plant is grown to yield.