Asparagus cooperi
Baker
Wild asparagus
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What to Eat
Edible parts: Shoots, Stems, Roots
The young shoots are eaten as a vegetable, and the roots are eaten as a snack.
Where to Find It
It is a subtropical plant. It grows in well-drained sandy or stony soil. It grows in regions with a summer rainfall. It can grow in arid places.
Africa, Botswana, East Africa, Eswatini, Mozambique, Lesotho, South Africa, Southern Africa, Swaziland,
Countries: Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Benin, Botswana, Congo (DRC), Central African Republic, Congo (Republic), Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Comoros, Liberia, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Sao Tome & Principe, Eswatini, Chad, Togo, Tunisia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe
How to Identify
A small shrub or climber. It keeps growing from year to year. The stems are loosely branched and have side shoots. The leaves are spiny. It grows 2 m high. The flowers are white and in groups. The fruit is a berry 5 mm across. It is red.
Names & Synonyms
Gaobeb, Katdoring, Lubane, Okalila konghadi
Protoasparagus cooperi (Baker) Oberm.Asparagus africanus JessopAsparagus burkei BakerAsparagus rivalis Burch. ex Kies
References (4)
- Long, C., 2005, Swaziland's Flora - siSwati names and Uses http://www.sntc.org.sz/flora/
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (1999). Survey of Economic Plants for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (SEPASAL) database. Published on the Internet; http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/ceb/sepasal/internet [Accessed 4th April 2011]
- Ruiters-Welcome, A. K., 2019, Food plants of southern Africa. Ph.D. thesis. Univ. of Johannesburg p 30
- Welcome, A. K. & Van Wyk, B.-E., 2019, An inventory and analysis of the food plants of southern Africa. South African Journal of Botany 122 (2019) 136–179
