Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

302 ASPARAGACEAE
Habitat and
distribution
Asparagus
aspergillus
Description
Habitat and
distribution
in each locule; style 0.3–0.7 mm long with 2–3branched stigma.
Fruit red, 6–9 mm in diameter with one seed, black, 4–5 mm in
diameter.
The species grows in Acacia-Commiphora woodland
between 1500 and 1620 m in Sidamo and Bale floristic
regions. It also occurs in Kenya, Djibouti, and Somalia.
The main flowering period in Ethiopia is from October
to December.
10. Asparagus aspergillus Jessop
The specific epithet ‘aspergillus’ refers to the brush­like
cladodes similar to the brush used for spraying water in
the Roman­Catholic Church, a name that also is used for
a microscopic fungus which produces spores in brushlike
structures. The Latin word, ‘asper gere’ means in fact
to ‘spray liquid’. The species was described by Jes-sop in
1966 from plants collected in Transvaal in South Africa.
The species resembles A. racemosus, but is easily
distinguished by the articulation of the pedicel at the
apex, by the anthers being black at maturity, and by the
2–3 mm long perianth. It also resembles A. buchananii
in having a simple raceme, solitary pedicels which are
articulated above the middle or just below, but it is easily
distinguished by its young bran ches being grey, scabrid
to puberu lous, by their pedicels being 1.5–2.5 mm long;
and by the black anthers.
Climbing or erect herb or shrub to 2 m. Branches glabrous to scabrid,
pale grey, with spines 8–10 mm long on main branches, 3–4 mm
long on terminal branches. Cladodes fasciculate, subulate, 10–20
mm long and