Why is my garlic brown and slightly translucent? I have a whole garlic where almost all cloves are slightly brown, a bit translucent and soft. This is a photo of one of the cloves:


The cloves are also a bit sticky when peeled. It reminds me a bit of how pickled garlic looks like:


These are not brown spots, so it doesn't seem bruised. Tastewise the garlic seems less strong than regular, light yellow garlic.

Does anybody know how these cloves ended up like this?
This is a defect known as "waxy breakdown" or "waxy decomposition", and is caused by growing or storing the garlic under too hot conditions.

See http://livegpath.cals.cornell.edu/gallery/garlic/waxy-breakdown-on-garlic/, which also mentions that anaerobic storage conditions are also considered a possible cause or contributing factor by scientists.