The World Flora Online

Herbes, arbres, arbustes ou lianes ; rhizome souvent épaissi en tubercules ou en un enchaînement de cormes ; tiges parfois partiellement transformées en structures ressemblant à des feuilles, les phylloclades (= cladodes). Feuilles soit développées et alors parfois nettement succulentes, soit réduites à des écailles, alternes, ± engaînantes, à limbe entier. Inflorescences axillaires, sans spathe, en panicule, racème ou fascicule, parfois fleurs solitaires. Fleurs hermaphrodites ou unisexuées, actinomorphes ou légèrement zygomorphes ; pédicelle articulé ou non ; tépales 6, en 2 verticilles égaux, libres ou soudés en cupule ou en tube ; étamines 6, en 2 verticilles, introrses, basifixes ou dorsifixes ; ovaire supère ou infère et 3-loculaire, à placentation axile et plusieurs ovules par loge ; style 1. Fruits en forme de baies ou en capsules. Graines noires et glabres ou parfois (chez Eriospermum) brunes et poilues.

Les Asparagaceae, suivant le concept retenu ici, contiendrait plus de 100 genres et plus de 1000 espèces. Pour la Flore : un genre avec trois ou quatre espèces présentes.

Seeds black, globose or truncate on one side, convex on the other Fruit a globose berry with 1– 2(– 3) seeds Pistil with 3 carpels united to form a 2– 3-locular ovary with 1– 12 ovules in each locule; placentation axile; style short with capitate or lobed stigma Stamens 6, in two series, fused to the perianth segments, present both in unisexual and bisexual flowers, non-functional in female unisexual flowers; filaments free from each other, anthers introrse, dorsifixed; pollen grains sulcate Perennial scandent or erect shrubs or subshrubs, branching; rhizomes sympodial from where the branches are growing; roots often swollen and fusiform Spines present or absent; when present these are formed usually from the reduced leaves, occasionally from branches Leaves normally reduced and scale-like, the assimilating function taken by modified green branches (cladodes); in some genera the branches are transformed into flattened, leaf-like cladodes (phylloclades) Cladodes solitary or fascicled, subulate, angled or linear Inflorescence axillary or terminal, solitary, fascicled or assembled in racemes or “ umbels” Flowers unisexual or bisexual, actinomorphic, small, erect or pendulous Perianth with 6 tepals in two series, all similar in shape, free or fused at the base, white, cream, yellow or green Fruit a globose berry with 1– 2(– 3) seeds Pistil with 3 carpels united to form a 2– 3-locular ovary with 1– 12 ovules in each locule; placentation axile; style short with capitate or lobed stigma Stamens 6, in two series, fused to the perianth segments, present both in unisexual and bisexual flowers, non-functional in female unisexual flowers; filaments free from each other, anthers introrse, dorsifixed; pollen grains sulcate Perennial scandent or erect shrubs or subshrubs, branching; rhizomes sympodial from where the branches are growing; roots often swollen and fusiform Spines present or absent; when present these are formed usually from the reduced leaves, occasionally from branches Leaves normally reduced and scale-like, the assimilating function taken by modified green branches (cladodes); in some genera the branches are transformed into flattened, leaf-like cladodes (phylloclades) Cladodes solitary or fascicled, subulate, angled or linear Inflorescence axillary or terminal, solitary, fascicled or assembled in racemes or “ umbels” Flowers unisexual or bisexual, actinomorphic, small, erect or pendulous Perianth with 6 tepals in two series, all similar in shape, free or fused at the base, white, cream, yellow or green

Family represented by the genus Asparagus with two subgenera, subgenus >i>Asparagus and subgenus >i>Myrsiphyllum (S.T. Malcomber & Sebsebe Demissew in Kew Bull. 48(1): 63– 78 (1993)). The members are widely distributed in the old world. Most species are found in arid tropical regions and Mediterranean climates