Asparagus multiflorus

Asparagus multiflorus will climb given the opportunity or, standing alone becomes a large tangled shrub as the one shown here. It may reach 2 m in height and width.

The many pale green zigzagging stems are hard and slightly hairy. Stems have fine longitudinal lines or ridges along the surface. The nodes are just thick knobs with no spines. Small branchlets emerge from these knobs on which the tiny cylindrical cladodes or leaf-like stems grow.

The flowers are positioned in the cladode fascicles, the groups of false leaves. They are small and white, blooming in midsummer.

The plant distribution is coastal and inland in the Eastern Cape and eastern parts of the Western Cape from Swellendam and the Little Karoo.

The habitat is diverse, sometimes absent from fynbos. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century.

The boiled young stems of A. multiflorus are sometimes eaten as a vegetable. Cutting the old stems back at the end of winter stimulates new growth suitable for harvesting. The taste is different from the conventional cooked asparagus (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; JSTOR; http://redlist.sanbi.org).