Isotype of Protasparagus africanus(Lam.) Oberm. [family ASPARAGACEAE ] (stored under name); Verified by J.P.Jessop, 1965
Related name
Protasparagus africanus
Flora
Entry for Protasparagus africanus [family ASPARAGACEAE]
Herbarium
South African National Biodiversity Institute, Compton Herbarium, Cape Town (SAM)
Collection
Flora of Southern Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of South Africa, (2003) Author: Dr J.P. Roux
Names
Protasparagus africanus [family ASPARAGACEAE]
Common names
Asparagus africanus Lam.: 295 (1783); Bresler: 9 (1826); Roem. & Schult.: 331 (1829); Bak.: 619 (1875); Bak.: 265 (1896); Marloth: t. 20 (1915); Salter: 175 (1940); Kies: 177 (1951b); Jessop: 48 (1966). Asparagopsis lamarckii Kunth: 87 (1850), nom. illegit. Type: as for Asparagus africanus. Asparagus dependens Thunb.: 66 (1794). Type: none given in Thunb. (1794) or (1823). Lectotype: sheet 8442 in UPS. This name is not treated by Obermeyer in the original manuscript of this treatment, but is treated as a synonym of Asparagus africanus by Baker (1896) and Jessop (1966), and of A. juniperinus fide Moss in a note on the type specimen. It is placed in synonymy here by Immelman, a decision based on the microfiche of the type specimen.
Information
Plant erect when stems young, later scrambling and up to 0,6 m or more high. Rhizome typical, bearing thin, rough roots. Stems many, pubescent or glabrous, smooth, green with spreading branches and branchlets, often closely beset with cladode fascicles. Spines straight or reflexed, sharp, reddish brown with the scale leaves above similar in colour, present below branches, branchlets and cladode fascicles. Cladodes ± 12 per fascicle, filiform, slightly curved, apiculate, unequally long, the longest up to 10 mm. Flowers up to ± 6 in each cladode fascicle; tepals narrowly obovate, ±3-4 mm long, whitish; stalk + 5 mm long, articulated in lower half. Stamens with small yellow anthers. Ovary with 4 ovules in each locule; obovoid; style and stigmas very short. Berry ± 5 mm in diameter, orange.
Habitat
Can be distinguished from related species by, inter alia, the presence of small, reflexed, reddish brown spines below the cladode fascicles.
Use
19. Protasparagus africanus (Lam.) Oberm. in South African Journal of Botany 2: 243 (1983). Type: Cape, without precise locality, Sonnerat s.n. (P, holo.; PRE, photo.!).
Range
Recorded from south-western Cape to Natal, from Saldanha Bay north as far as Sordwana Bay in Natal and into the southÂeastern Transvaal; growing mainly near the coast but also occasionally further inland; occurs in fairly moist places. Map 17.
