Stats

Lifespan: Perennial up to 20 yrs
Size: Medium
Diet: Photosynthetic
Biome: Temperate grassland
Range: Eurasia
Movement: Sessile
Breeding: Seeds
Defense: Spines
Status: Common

About

Garden asparagus sends up edible spears each spring from an underground crown that can keep producing for 20 years or more. The soft green shoot you eat is actually a compressed stem covered in tightly furled scale-leaves, which unfurl into feathery fronds if left unharvested.

Life cycle

1.
seed
A dormant seed waits for water and warmth before germinating.
2.
sprout
A first shoot emerges with cotyledon leaves and a tap root reaching down.
3.
sapling
A young plant grows true leaves and a stem or trunk, putting on height each season.
4.
mature
Fully grown, flowering or fruiting at adult size.

Learn more

Taxonomy

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Asparagales
Family: Asparagaceae
Genus: Asparagus
Species: Asparagus officinalis