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Asparagus africanus
Asparagaceae FAMILY

Asparagus africanus

Asparagus africanus

Edibility
2/5
Medicinal
2/5

Safety & Hazards

The roots and branchlets are ingredients of arrow-poison[1].

Cultivation Details

HabitPerennial Climber
Growth—

A plant of the drier to semi-arid areas of the tropics and subtropics. It grows in areas where the mean annual rainfall is in the range 1,000 - 1,700mm[2]. Thrives in a sunny position in a sandy, clay loam[2]. The plant is often found on land after a fire[2].

Propagation

Seed - best sown as soon as it is ripe. Pre-soak stored seed for 12 hours in warm water and then sow in containers in a lightly shaded position. It usually germinates in 3 - 6 weeks at 25°c[3]. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots when they are large enough to handle and grow them on in a sunny position until ready to plant out. Division as the plant comes into growth. Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-19. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Asparagus+africanus>

Pollinators

Bees

References

  1. [1]Protabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. — http://www.prota.org ↩︎An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa.
  2. [2]Edible Wild Plants of Tanzania — Ruffo, C.K.: Birnie, A. & Tengnas, B. · Regional Land Management Unit; Nairobi. · 2002 · ISBN 9966-896-60-0 ↩︎A very well presented, simple guide to growing and utilizing wild food plants in Tanzania, with line drawings of each plant, a description, habitat and range, non-food as well as food uses, plus basic information on growing the plants.
  3. [3]Growing from Seed. Volume 2. — Rice. G. (Editor) · Thompson and Morgan. · 1988 · ISBN - ↩︎Very readable magazine with lots of information on propagation. An interesting article on Ensete ventricosum.
  4. [4]The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. — Burkil. H. M. · Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. · 1985 - 2004 ↩︎Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/
  5. [5]African Flowering Plants Database — Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques. · http://www.ville-ge.ch/musinfo/bd/cjb/africa/recherche.php ↩︎Contains information on over 150,000 plant names (including synonyms) giving a description and habitat, plus a distribution map.
  6. [6]Dictionary of Economic Plants. — Uphof. J. C. Th. · Weinheim · 1959 · ISBN - ↩︎An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.