Climbing Asparagus

Asparagus plumosus

Alternative Name(s): Asparagus setaceus misapplied, Protasparagus plumosus, Ferny Asparagus.

Family: Asparagaceae.

Form: Vine

Origin: Native of South Africa.

Flowers/Seedhead: Greenish white, bell-shaped, 5–7 mm wide. Flowers spring to autumn.

Description: Wiry perennial scrambler with fibrous rhizomes and roots, aerial parts to 5 m high on supporting vegetation. Stems to many metres long. Leaves reduced to spine-like scales that are not hardened, mostly <5 mm long and are found at the base of leaf-like cladodes. Seeds 2.5–3.5 mm wide.

Distinguishing features: Distinguished by main roots swollen on young plants, tubers not formed; thread-like cladodes 2–7 mm long and about 0.1 mm wide, in clusters of 8–15; lateral branches arranged in the same plane; flowers single or paired at ends of lateral branches; petal-like tepals not joined; fleshy berries green at first, ripening black, 4–5 mm wide, 1-seeded.

Dispersal: Seeds spread by birds and water. Rhizomes and fruit containing seeds also spread in dumped garden waste.

Confused With: Other fern-like Asparagus species particularly Asparagus africanus but that species has mature orange fruit.