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Need help to identify wild asparagus
- Thread starter Snakedoc
- Start date
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2011
- Messages
- 608
Ok so I am still not 100% sure, but I don't think that is wild asparagus from just looking at it. Read what I have found and posted below and see what you think. I dont know anything about where you found it or what the climate is like where you were. Sorry I can;t give you a definite answer, but this should help you figure it out.
"Regular cultivated asparagus bolts in May, but the wild variety pops up a little earlier. They are much daintier, but a delicacy nevertheless. Foraging for asparagus is not like ordinary foraging. It is more akin to mushroom hunting, for asparagus has a great talent to hide itself among the briars and bushes and often you won't see them at all until they are way too old and have started to sprout their feathery fronds. But once you have developed a 'nose' for the right season and the right places where the elusive spears might be found, hunting them down is an exquisite, fun-filled adventure, which may land you in some very strange places.
Asparagus likes to grow in a variety of places, depending on the species. Asparagus likes water, but not water-logged areas. It grows in well draining soil, near ditches or riverbeds and alluvial plains, where there is plenty of moisture nearby. It usually likes full sun, though some varieties also tolerate heavier soil and semi-shaded areas.
Although asparagus has a very distinctive appearance, it can be hard to spot. Euell Gibbons, in his classic 'Stalking the wild asparagus' gives a very good description of how one can learn to detect them: focus on the dead weeds nearby and learn to recognize last years dead asparagus brush.
That may be a simple thing on plain ground or if only searching for the upright growing wild asparagus, which in fact is 'escaped' garden variety asparagus, standing tall and hovering above other herbs. But Asparagus is a plant that originated in the old world. Worldwide there are about 100 species, of which at least 15 occur in the Mediterranean region. Among them is Asparagus officinalis spp prostatus*, a true wild variety. As the name suggests, this species creeps and winds its way along the ground and gets entangled in the undergrowth. When searching for the fresh spears one has to take a thorough survey of the riverbanks, sea shores or thickets of macchia to spot the old entangled mass and then dive further down into undergrowth to investigate where the plant originates and whether there may be any new shoots nearby."
Found at:
http://www.sacredearth.com/ethnobotany/foraging/asparagus.php
[video=youtube;dXJWhOTGwzk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXJWhOTGwzk[/video]
[video=youtube;MRFzNqfzl-8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRFzNqfzl-8&feature=player_embedded#at=59[/video]
Search "identify wild asparagus" in youtube...lots of videos come up
"This is what it looks like coming up out of the ground:
"
Obtained from:
http://thetangentwithin.blogspot.com/2008/05/wild-asparagus.html
...and I just learned that there is such a thing as white asparagus, but that it does not grow naturally. It is Grown using a process known as etiolation which involves covering the stalk with dirt as the plant sprouts. The lack of light prevents the plant from producing chlorophyll and causes the stalk to be white.
Best,
"Regular cultivated asparagus bolts in May, but the wild variety pops up a little earlier. They are much daintier, but a delicacy nevertheless. Foraging for asparagus is not like ordinary foraging. It is more akin to mushroom hunting, for asparagus has a great talent to hide itself among the briars and bushes and often you won't see them at all until they are way too old and have started to sprout their feathery fronds. But once you have developed a 'nose' for the right season and the right places where the elusive spears might be found, hunting them down is an exquisite, fun-filled adventure, which may land you in some very strange places.
Asparagus likes to grow in a variety of places, depending on the species. Asparagus likes water, but not water-logged areas. It grows in well draining soil, near ditches or riverbeds and alluvial plains, where there is plenty of moisture nearby. It usually likes full sun, though some varieties also tolerate heavier soil and semi-shaded areas.
Although asparagus has a very distinctive appearance, it can be hard to spot. Euell Gibbons, in his classic 'Stalking the wild asparagus' gives a very good description of how one can learn to detect them: focus on the dead weeds nearby and learn to recognize last years dead asparagus brush.
That may be a simple thing on plain ground or if only searching for the upright growing wild asparagus, which in fact is 'escaped' garden variety asparagus, standing tall and hovering above other herbs. But Asparagus is a plant that originated in the old world. Worldwide there are about 100 species, of which at least 15 occur in the Mediterranean region. Among them is Asparagus officinalis spp prostatus*, a true wild variety. As the name suggests, this species creeps and winds its way along the ground and gets entangled in the undergrowth. When searching for the fresh spears one has to take a thorough survey of the riverbanks, sea shores or thickets of macchia to spot the old entangled mass and then dive further down into undergrowth to investigate where the plant originates and whether there may be any new shoots nearby."
Found at:
http://www.sacredearth.com/ethnobotany/foraging/asparagus.php
[video=youtube;dXJWhOTGwzk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXJWhOTGwzk[/video]
[video=youtube;MRFzNqfzl-8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRFzNqfzl-8&feature=player_embedded#at=59[/video]
Search "identify wild asparagus" in youtube...lots of videos come up
"This is what it looks like coming up out of the ground:
Obtained from:
http://thetangentwithin.blogspot.com/2008/05/wild-asparagus.html
...and I just learned that there is such a thing as white asparagus, but that it does not grow naturally. It is Grown using a process known as etiolation which involves covering the stalk with dirt as the plant sprouts. The lack of light prevents the plant from producing chlorophyll and causes the stalk to be white.
Best,
Last edited:
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2009
- Messages
- 251
Certainly not wild asparagus. Given the color, I would suspect that it is either a myco-heterotroph or other parasitic plant.