Asparagus bechuanicus
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Image 1
Habit
09 Apr 2012
Image 2
Habit
09 Apr 2012
Image 3
Habit
09 Apr 2012
Image 4
Leaves and stems
09 Apr 2012
Image 5
Leaves and stems
09 Apr 2012
| Family: | Asparagaceae |
| Full name: | Asparagus bechuanicus Baker |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | - |
| English common name(s): | Wild asparagus |
| Synonym(s): | Asparagus africanus auct. - sensu Jessop, non Lam., p.p.-- misapplied name Protasparagus bechuanicus (Baker) Oberm. |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: | Erect, rounded, greyish green shrubs 0.4-0.6 m high, glabrous or minutely puberulous; the spreading branches and branchlets often ending in obtuse bare tips. Rhizome and roots not seen. Stems branching, hard, smooth. Spines exserted, 5 mm long, sharp, from a broad base, or suppressed. Branches and branchlets spreading and widely spaced along stems. Cladodes terete, 4-6(-10) mm long, apiculate, in fascicles of 4-12, surrounded at the base by a cluster of small, membranous, ciliate bracts. Flowers 1-several, placed inside cladode fascicles; tepals 2 mm long; stalk 4 mm long, articulated in lower half. Ovary with 4 ovules in each locule. Berry globose, 3 mm in diameter, red to orange. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora of Southern Africa) A climber. Stems slender, woody, with close copiously pinnate slender glabrous branches. Leaves produced at the base into a small pungent conical straight spur. Cladodia 3–6-nate, rigid, setaceous, ascending, 0.125– 0.25 in. long. Flowers hermaphrodite, solitary; pedicels 0.25 in. long, articulated below the middle. Perianth 0.125 in. long; segments oblong, ascending, white with a broad green keel. Stamens as long as the perianth; anthers oblong, minute, bright-yellow. Ovary globose; styles not reaching up to the anthers. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora of Tropical Africa) |
| Link(s) |
African Plant Database
JSTOR Plant Science Kew Herbarium Catalogue BGBM Berlin-Dahlem - Virtual Herbarium Züricher Herbarien iNaturalist (Namibia / Alex Dreyer) iNaturalist (Namibia) iNaturalist (southern Africa) Flora of Zimbabwe Fleurs de notre Terre - Galerie Namibie Tree Atlas of Namibia |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
