Upright plants are ssp officinalis, the garden variety, an escape from cultivation; the native wild variety, always prostrate, is ssp prostratus, found on cliffs along the southwest coasts. The two are sometimes considered to be separate species.
Common name:
Garden asparagus
Family:
Scientific name:
Asparagus officinalis
Main flower color:
Range:
Central, south and southeast England
Height:
Up to 1.5 m
Habitat:
Waste ground, grassland, often on sandy soils
Flowers:
Solitary or paired, at the leaf nodes, attached by slender, hairless stalks. Flowers have a six-lobed, greenish-yellow corolla, around 6 mm long, containing either an ovary or six stamens - male or female flowers occur on separate plants
Fruit:
Globular red berries
Leaves:
Inconspicuous, whitish, scale-like. The branched, green, linear, leaf-like structures are actually modified stems (cladodes), up to 3 cm long
Season:
June to September
Rarity:
★★★★★
