AusTraits

Asparagus officinalis

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Asparagaceae

Taxonomy: Asparagus officinalis L.

Synonyms: 2 (APC 2026-07-30)
  • Asparagus caspius Hohen. (taxonomic synonym)
  • Asparagus polyphyllus Steven (taxonomic synonym)

Distribution (APC): WA (naturalised), SA (naturalised), Qld (naturalised), NSW (naturalised), ACT (naturalised), Vic (naturalised), Tas (naturalised)

Profiles: APC, Flora of Australia, ALA, iNaturalist, NSW Flora, SA eFlora, Vic Flora, Florabase, ATRP

Traits

Top source datasets: ABRS_2022 (5), ABRS_2023 (15), Kubiak_2009 (2), NHNSW_2014_2 (8), NHNSW_2024 (13), RBGV_2022 (4), RBGV_2023 (13), SAH_2022 (4), SAH_2023 (8), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Stephens_2023 (1), WAH_2022_2 (4), WAH_2023_2 (3), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), eFLOWER_2021 (25). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 53 traits from 112 records in 16 datasets.

Traits by category (click to expand). For categorical traits, the values are listed. For numerical traits, the mean and range are shown.

fire response
flower morphology
  • flower_colour (categorical): green (1); white_cream (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
  • sex_type (categorical): dioecious (3); hermaphrodite (1) [sources: ABRS_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit morphology
  • fruit_length (numerical): 7.5 mm (5-10 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2024]
  • fruit_width (numerical): 7.5 mm (5-10 mm) [sources: NHNSW_2024; SAH_2023]
  • fruit_height (numerical): 7.5 mm (6-9 mm) [sources: SAH_2023]
  • fruit_type (categorical): berry (5) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2024; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_fleshiness (categorical): fleshy (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_dehiscence (categorical): indehiscent (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_colour (categorical): red (4) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2024; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf morphology
  • leaf_length (numerical): 17.5 mm (5-30 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2024; RBGV_2023]
  • leaf_width (numerical): 0.75 mm (0.5-1 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2024; RBGV_2023]
  • leaf_type (categorical): scale (1) [sources: NHNSW_2024]
  • leaf_shape (categorical): acicular (1); filiform (2); linear (2); subulate (1); terete (1) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2024; RBGV_2023]
  • leaf_margin (categorical): entire (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
  • leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
  • leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): alternate (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2014_2]
  • leaf_arrangement (categorical): clustered (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; SAH_2023]
  • plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): cladode (4) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2024; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
life history
  • plant_growth_form (categorical): herb (5) [sources: ABRS_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • life_history (categorical): perennial (5) [sources: ABRS_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
  • woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (5) [sources: ABRS_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
  • stem_growth_habit (categorical): erect (2); rhizomatous (1) [sources: ABRS_2022; WAH_2022_2]
  • pollination_syndrome (categorical): insect (1) [sources: Stephens_2023]
  • flowering_time (categorical): yynnnnnnyyyy (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
  • vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): vegetative (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
  • storage_organ (categorical): rhizome (3); stem_tuber (1) [sources: ABRS_2023; RBGV_2023; WAH_2023_2]
seed morphology
  • seed_length (numerical): 3.5 mm (3-4 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; RBGV_2023]
whole plant morphology
  • plant_height (numerical): 1.38 m (0.5-1.5 m) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2014_2; RBGV_2023; WAH_2023_2]

Sources

dataset_idn_traitsn_recordsreference
eFLOWER_20212125J. Schönenberger, M. Balthazar, A. L. Martinez, B. Albert, C. Prieu, S. Magallon, and H. Sauquet. “Phylogenetic analysis of fossil flowers using an angiosperm-wide data set: proof-of-concept and challenges ahead”. American Journal of Botany 107.10 (2020), pp. 1433-1448. doi: 10.1002/ajb2.1538.
ABRS_20231215Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
NHNSW_2024913N. H. of New South Wales. The Plant Information Network System of The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Version 2.0.. accessed on December, 2023.. 2024. url: https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
RBGV_20231013VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2023. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/.
NHNSW_2014_288Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
SAH_202368S. H. of South Australia. eFlora of SA, Electronic Flora of South Australia. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.flora.sa.gov.au/.
ABRS_202255Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
RBGV_202244VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/.
SAH_202244S. H. of South Australia. eFlora of SA, Electronic Flora of South Australia. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.flora.sa.gov.au/.
Sjostrom_200644A. Sjöström and C. L. Gross. “Life-history characters and phylogeny are correlated with extinction risk in the Australian angiosperms”. Journal of Biogeography 33.2 (2006), pp. 271-290. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2005.01393.x.
WAH_2022_244Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
WAH_2023_223Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Kubiak_200922P. J. Kubiak. “Fire responses of bushland plants after the January 1994 wildfires in northern Sydney”. Cunninghamia 11.1 (2009), pp. 131-165.
Wenk_202222E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
Stephens_202311R. E. Stephens, R. V. Gallagher, L. Dun, W. Cornwell, and H. Sauquet. “Insect pollination for most of angiosperm evolutionary history”. New Phytologist 240.2 (2023), pp. 880-891. ISSN: 1469-8137. doi: 10.1111/nph.18993.
Wenk_202311E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.