From Sturtevant’s
Edible Plants Of The World
by E. Lewis
Sturtevant
Asparagus
Asparagus acerosus Roxb. Liliaceae. East Indies and Burma. This species was found by Mason to be a passable substitute for our garden asparagus.
A. acutifolius
Linn. ASPARAGUS. Mediterranean regions. The young shoots are eaten in
Italy, Spain, Portugal and by the Greeks in Sicily. They are thin,
bitter and often stringy.
A. adscendens
Roxb. Himalayas and Afghanistan. From this plant is made, according to
Modeen Sheriff, the genuine sufed mush, called in the Deccan
skakakul-hindi and used as a substitute for salep.
A. albus Linn.
GARDEN-HEDGE. Western Mediterranean region. The young heads are cut
from wild plants and brought to table in Sicily, but they form but a
poor substitute for cultivated asparagus.
A. aphyllus Linn. Mediterranean region. The young shoots are collected and eaten in Greece.
A. laricinus Burch. A shrubby species of South Africa. Dr. Pappe says that it produces shoots of excellent tenderness and aromatic taste.
A. officinalis
Linn. ASPARAGUS. Europe, Caucasian regions and Siberia. This plant, so
much esteemed in its cultivated state, is a plant of the seashore and
river banks of southern Europe and the Crimea. It is now naturalized in
many parts of the world. In the southern parts of Russia and Poland,
the waste steppes are covered with this plant. Unger says it is not
found either wild or cultivated in Greece, but Daubeny says at the
present time it is known under the name of asparaggia, and Booth says
it is common. Probably the mythological mention of the asparagus
thickets which concealed Perigyne, beloved of Theseus,— the plant, in
consequence, being protected by law among the lonians inhabiting
Caria—referred to another species.
Cultivated asparagus seems to have
been unknown to the Greeks of the time of Theophrastus and Disocorides,
and the word asparagos seems to have been used for the wild plant of
another species. The Romans of the time of Cato, about 200 B. C., knew
it well, and Cato's directions for culture would answer fairly well for
the gardeners of today, except that he recommends starting with the
seed of the wild plant, and this seems good evidence that the wild and
the cultivated forms were then of the same type as
they are today. Columella, in the
first century, recommends transplanting the young roots
from a seed-bed and devotes some space to their after-treatment. He
offers choice of cultivated seed or that
from the wild plant, without
indicating preference. Pliny, who also wrote in the first
century, says that asparagus, of all the plants
of the garden, receives the most
praiseworthy care and also praises the good quality of the kind that
grows wild in the island of Nesida near the coast of Campania. In his
praise of gardens, he says: "Nature has made the asparagus wild, so
that any one may gather as found. Behold, the highly-manured asparagus
may be seen at Ravenna weighing three pounds.'' Palladius, an author of
the third century, rather praises the sweetness of the wild form found
growing among the rocks and recommends transplanting it to such places
otherwise worthless for agriculture, but he also gives full directions
for garden culture with as much care as did Cato. Gesner quotes
Pomponius, who lived in the second century, as saying that there are
two kinds, the garden and the wild asparagus, and that the wild
asparagus is the more pleasant to eat. Suetonius, about the beginning
of the second century, informs us how partial the Emperor Augustus was
to asparagus, and Erasmus also mentions it.
A. racemosus
Willd. RACEMOSE ASPARAGUS. East Indies, African tropics and Australia.
In India, the tubers are candied as a sweetmeat. This preparation,
however, as Dutt states, has scarcely any other taste or flavor besides
that of the sugar. Firminger says the preserve prepared from the
blanched shoots is very agreeable.
A. sannentosus
Linn. East Indies. The long, fleshy, whitish root is used as food by
the people of Ceylon and, in the candied state, is often brought to
India from China.
A. verticillatus Linn.
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