Asparagus verticillatus CLIMBING ASPARAGUS

[ottawagardener]

So I see varying stats on its hardiness and edibility as well as one mention that it has sharp edges. Thoughts? Experiences?

[stevil]

I've had a plant for some years, it survives the winter but grows weakly in the summer, nothing like this fine example from a botanical garden in Paris:

[canadamike]

Is it edible??

[ottawagardener]

Apparently... but there aren't alot of mentions of it.

[stevil]

As Telsing says, there isn't that much information on this species which is known to have been wild collected (spring shoots) in its home range in south west Russia.

Remarkably, local wild food traditions of the Mediterranean countries have only been properly studied over the last 10 years as a result of increased interest in the Mediterranean diet (information which was almost lost). This information is so new that many of the species used are not in the PFAF data base, Cornucopia II etc. Similar studies in the Caucasus and South Russia have yet to be carried out and I suspect that Asparagus verticillatus was important in some areas (just look at Hablitzia tamnoides - there is still zero information on this from its home in the Caucasus - surely it was/is used for food?).

In the Mediterranean countries, wild Asparagus species were traditionally used (back into antiquity) in the springtime and were favourites amongst the wild edibles, notably Asparagus acutifolius, but also Asparagus albus,
A. aphyllus, A. stipularis and, of course, A. officinalis and nowadays are sold as gourmet food in restaurants in the region and reckoned to taste better than cultivated asparagus.

I wrote an article on Asparagus last year where wild species were also mentioned and you can use Google Translate if you are not Scandinavian, not a bad translation...:

www.skogoglandskap.no/fagartikler/2009/asparges

[ottawagardener]

Now that you mention it, I know practically nothing about plants that were traditionally eaten in the Caucasus etc... There is an organization over here that produces a seed map where they list the economically important foods and where they came from. It makes it seem like Canadians ate nothing but strawberries...

You know this post just makes me want to hunt down rare varieties of Asparagus seeds. I admit it. I'm an edible plant freak.

[ottawagardener]

Interesting read. I'd heard of hops being used this way but I'd assumed they'd be bitter. Are they sweeter in the spring?

[canadamike]

There are wild european asparagus available in the Jean Talon market in Montreal in spring. I must confess that I was not at all impressed by the taste of them, neither was the lady selling them, and her taste is educated in different foods/flavors. we both had a laugh , she made a joke about yuppies going for the stuff and paying big bucks for it while it was nearly tasteless.

Mind you, I have no idea of which species it was. It was not bad tasting, just pretty grassy tasting, even then kind of bland...

[flowerpower]

I have a question on asparagus in general. Do the crowns ever produce more than one stalk each? My gf is planting 80 this yr. She wants to know if they will "spread" or if she'll want to plant more. I have no clue. lol I don't eat asparagus & I only have 2 plants I dug up from the field. They are just ornamentals to me.

[canadamike]

They kind of stay''focused'' around the center of the crown, but yes, they spread. The crown of roots becomes HUGE. If you had to move one, after many years, you would hardly be able to put it in a half barrel.

The male plants produce bigger and fatter shoots than the females. Tell her to put them every 3 feet or so.

[flowerpower]

Thanks, Mike. I think she ordered mostly male plants.