Asparagus 天門冬屬
型態特徵
Perennial, polygamo-dioecious herbs, woody climbers or shrubs, usually with a subterranean rhizome or root tuberous; stem elongate, woody or nearly so, erect or scandent, smooth to acicular, grooved or not. Leaves reduced to minute, membranous scales, these either prolonged beyond their insertion or not; mostly small, subulate, linear, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, finally caducous. Branchlets 1-15 scale per axil; these short shoots either leaf-like (phylloclades) or more or less needleshaped (cladodes). Flowers bisexual or unisexual, axillary, solitary or fascicled, sometimes in racemes; pedicel articulate; perianth segments 6, free or short connate at base; stamens 6, filaments attached at base of perianth segments; anthers oblong to round; ovary superior, 3-celled, ovules 2 per cell; style shortly 3-lobed or subentire. Fruit a berry, globose, 1-6-seeded; seeds globose, testa usually black; embryo straight, surrounded by a hard endosperm. Basic chromosome number X=10.
More than 150 species mainly in the Old World, one species native to Taiwan.
