Brace yourself!
Besides red onions, the most common onions round these parts are these: 大葱 (dà cōng), literally 'big onion'.
Dictionaries tend to translate that as 'green Chinese onion' or 'leek' or give the scientific name, Allium fistulosum. 'Leeks' aren't allium fistulosum, but Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum, also known as Allium porrum, so I am dismissing 'leeks', leaving Allium fistulosum which is usually taken to be scallions, green onions, spring onions, as you prefer. However, that group is actually Allium ascalonicum and Allium Fistulosum is more properly Welsh onions, which lie somewhere between onions and leeks. Are you confused yet?
I''m going to call them sybows or sybies (the 'sy' is pronounced 'sigh'), the Scots variation of the now obsolete English term chibol or cibol. The Scottish version lives on in some dialects, including mine, in which we prefer sybies! Or I'll stick with the Chinese notion and call them 'big onions'.
