Angiosperm Families - Asparagaceae Juss.
Angiosperm Families - Asparagaceae Juss.
Angiosperm Families - Asparagaceae Juss.
Asparagaceae Juss.
~ Former Liliaceae, Asparagaceae-Asparagoideae of APG III et al.
Excluding Agavaceae, Aphyllanthaceae, Hesperocallidaceae, Hyacinthaceae, Laxmanniaceae,
Ruscaceae, Themidaceae.
Habit and leaf form. Shrubs, or lianas, or herbs. Switch-plants; with the principal
photosynthesizing function transferred to stems (as represented by axillary clusters of
cladodes). Leaves much reduced (to small bractlike structures). The herbs perennial;
without conspicuous aggregations of leaves; rhizomatous. Self supporting, or climbing; the
climbers stem twiners; twining anticlockwise (Asparagus). Leaves alternate; membranous
(scales); more or less sheathing; simple. Lamina entire; parallel-veined. Leaves exstipulate.
Leaf anatomy. The mesophyll commonly containing mucilage cells (with raphides); commonly
containing crystals. The crystals raphides. Foliar vessels absent.
Axial (stem, wood) anatomy. Secondary thickening absent.
Economic uses, etc. Cultivated ornamentals, and culinary asparagus (A. officinalis).
Illustrations. • Le Maout and Decaisne: Asparagus. • Asparagus officinalis (B. Ent., 1839).
• Asparagus officinalis: Eng. Bot. 1515 (1869). • Asparagus umbellatus: Bot. Mag. 126 (1900).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much
more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to
the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions,
differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified
attributes, distributions of character states within any set of taxa, geographical distribution,
genera included in each family, and classifications (Dahlgren; Dahlgren, Clifford, and Yeo;
Cronquist; APG). See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 1992 onwards. The families of Flowering
Plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 14th
October 2019. delta-intkey.com’.
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