Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis) or garden asparagus is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus Asparagus native to Eurasia. Widely cultivated as a vegetable crop, its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable. In 2024, world production of asparagus was 8.9 million tonnes, led by China with 87% of the total.
Description
Adult plant with fruits
Asparagus is an herbaceous, perennial plant growing typically to 100–150 centimetres (3–5 feet) tall, with stout stems with much-branched, feathery foliage. It has been known to grow as long as 3.5 metres (11 ft). The 'leaves' are needle-like cladodes (modified stems) in the axils of scale leaves; they are
The flowers are bell-shaped, greenish-white to yellowish, 4.5–6.5 mm (3⁄16–1⁄4 in) long, with six tepals partially fused together at the base; they are produced singly or in clusters of two or three in the junctions of the branchlets. It is usually dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate plants, but sometimes hermaphrodite flowers are found. The fruit is a small red berry 6–10 mm (1⁄4–13⁄32 in) in diameter, which is toxic to humans.
Asparagus grown natively to the western coasts of Europe (from northern Spain to northwest Germany, north Ireland, and Great Britain) are treated as A. officinalis subsp. prostratus (Dumort.) Corb., distinguished by its low-growing, often prostrate stems growing to only 30–70 cm (12–28 in) high, and shorter cladodes 2–18 mm (3⁄32–23⁄32 in) long. Some authors treat it as a distinct species, A. prostratus Dumort.
Asparagus shoot before becoming woody
"Asparagus prostratus". Germplasm Resources Information Network. Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved 19 May 2010.
