Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

Asparagus
buchananii
Description
Habitat and
distribution
Asparagus
asparagoides
11. Asparagus buchananii Baker
ASPARAGUS 303
The specific epithet ‘buchananii’ is given in honour of the
collector, Mr Buchanan from whose collection the type
of the species was designated. The species was described
by Baker in 1893 from a plant collected from Malawi.
It resembles A. aspergillus on account of having a
simple raceme, solitary pedicels which are articulated
above the middle or just below, but easily distinguished
by the young branches that are pale brown, glabrous,
smooth; pedicels 2–5 mm long; ovary with style c. 0.5
mm long and anthers cream to yellowish.
Climber, commonly to 5 m high or sometimes longer. Branches
glabrous, pale brown, smooth, shiny with spines on main branches
1–4 cm long, dorsally flattened towards the base. Cladodes
fasciculate, 3–5 together, subulate, 10–17(–27) mm long. Bracts
ovate, 0.5–2 mm long. Racemes solitary or in fascicles of 2–3, 1.5–
4 cm long, glabrous; pedicels solitary or 2 together, 2–5 mm long,
articulated at the apex or sometimes at the middle. Perianth white to
cream, elliptic to obovate, 2–3 mm long. Stamens shorter than the
perianth parts; anthers yellow. Ovary 3­locular, obovate with 6–8
ovules in each locule; style c. 0.5 mm long with 3­branched stigma.
Fruit red, c. 5 mm in diameter, 1–2seeded.
Asparagus buchananii is found in forest or wet savanna.
It occurs in southern Sudan, northern Kenya, northern
Uganda to South Africa, and Angola. The species is
not yet recorded within Ethiopia, but due to its wider
distribution in the region and its occurrence in Southern
Sudan, not far from the Ethiopian border, it is expected to
occur in Kefa, floristic region in SW Ethiopia, and hence
it is included here.
12. Asparagus asparagoides (L.) Wight
This species is called ‘Smilax of florists’ in English. The
specific epithet ‘asparag o ides’ refers to its resemblance
or similarity to the genus Asparagus, as the species was
first described under a separate genus, Medeola. The
species was described by Linnaeus in 1753 as Medeola
aspara g oides from a plant cultivated in Horti Pisani.
Later it was transferred to the genus Asparagus by Wight
in 1909.
It is distinguished from other species of the genus
by the characteristic flattened, leaf-like cladodes