Asparagus densiflorus

Asparagus densiflorus grows to heights around 60 cm, occasionally 1,5 m. The often nearly erect stems with short, but hooked spines tend to become enmeshed in neighbouring shrubs.

The spherical fruits grow on straight stalks, in picture turned blackish purple with some faint green colouring still shining through. This plant has managed to produce a large autumn crop here in the Rooiberg in the Little Karoo.

The earlier white or pale pink flowers had grown in racemes, their tepals and filaments spreading.

The species is distributed from the Little Karoo in the Western Cape through the Eastern Cape to KwaZulu-Natal and north of the Vaal River in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Gauteng. 

The habitat is varied, the plants growing in shade of larger shrubs and trees. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; www.plantzafrica.com; http://redlist.sanbi.org).