Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands 417
2. Family ASPARAGACEAE
1. PROTASPARAGUS
Shrubs or subshrubs, erect or scandent and twining, with tuberous roots. True leaves absent or
reduced to small scales. The photosynthetic function is carried out by modified branchlets (phylloclades),
needle-like or leaf-like, these whorled or in fascicles. Flowers bisexual, minute, in racemes or scattered
among the phylloclades; perianth with 6 free segments; stamens 6; ovary superior, 3-locular, with 4-10
ovules per locule, the stigmas three. Fruit a berry. Seeds globose, smooth, black. A genus of about 100
species, distributed in southern and northern Africa and in Asia.