Species
+

Asparagus officinalis L.

Asparagus, Garden Asparagus

Climate known 76 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Asparagus or garden asparagus is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus Asparagus native to Eurasia. Widely cultivated as a vegetable crop, its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable. In 2024, world production of asparagus was 8.9 million tonnes, led by China with 87% of the total.

Text from Wikipedia, “Asparagus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Asparagus

Asparagus or garden asparagus is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus Asparagus native to Eurasia. Widely cultivated as a vegetable crop, its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable. In 2024, world production of asparagus was 8.9 million tonnes, led by China with 87% of the total.

Text from Wikipedia, “Asparagus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany +28
Wild records
313 in range· 68 open

At a glance

Warmest month
24°C
Jul, mean day; nights 15 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
623mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 70 mm (CHELSA)
Light
4–36DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 623 mm a year, wettest June at 70 mm, driest February at 37 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -15.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Asparagus altilis (L.) Asch.; Asparagus altilis subsp. oxycarpus (Steven) K.Richt.; Asparagus altilis subsp. polyphyllus (Steven ex Ledeb.) K.Richt.; Asparagus caspius Hohen.; Asparagus caspius Schult. & Schult.f. and 43 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (462 mm of 623 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 21.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to June.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 623 mm a year, wettest June at 70 mm, driest February at 37 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

623 mm a year at the habitat, 462 mm of it May to December. Wettest month June at 70 mm, driest February at 37 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 493 mm to 886 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 36 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -15.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -15.0 °C, the absolute minimum -27.9 °C, about 121 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -4.4 °C in January (across the envelope cells -14.0 °C to 2.2 °C), warmest day 24.2 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -15.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 2 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jul; mean night from -4 °C in Jan to 15 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 623 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 259 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -27.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-40°-20°20°40°frost33.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-27.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100mm rainDLI 4–36RH 57–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 259 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C2 / -8–94 / -8–98 / -1–1213 / 9–1619 / 16–2122 / 20–2524 / 22–2724 / 21–2719 / 15–2313 / 7–177 / -1–122 / -6–9
Night °C-4 / -14–2-4 / -14–2-1 / -8–44 / -0–79 / 7–1113 / 11–1515 / 14–1715 / 13–1711 / 8–146 / 2–101 / -6–6-3 / -12–3
Rain mm44 / 26–7737 / 24–6139 / 26–6941 / 30–7058 / 40–8170 / 40–8768 / 39–8860 / 37–8058 / 44–8152 / 35–9648 / 35–9048 / 31–85
DLI6 / 4–1111 / 9–1720 / 17–2528 / 26–3335 / 33–3836 / 34–4136 / 33–4030 / 27–3521 / 17–2712 / 9–186 / 4–124 / 3–9
RH %67 / 62–7365 / 60–7062 / 59–6558 / 56–6057 / 54–6158 / 54–6058 / 54–6158 / 54–6160 / 57–6363 / 60–6566 / 63–6968 / 62–71

Each figure is the median across the 259 grid cells holding the 309 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 817:3935 (49.125, 16.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -27.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -15.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 259 distinct grid cells holding the 309 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 817:3935 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 49.00_16.875, lapse-corrected +1 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 245 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAustria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, Corse, France, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Belarus, Krym, Central European Russia, South European Russia, Ukraine, Altay, Krasnoyarsk, West Siberia, Kazakhstan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, Iran, Lebanon-Syria, Turkey, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Pakistan· introduced: Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Baltic States, East European Russia, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Seychelles, Primorye, Cyprus, Inner Mongolia, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, West Himalaya, Solomon Is., New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Marianas, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Labrador, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, Trinidad-Tobago, Bolivia, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Argentina Northwest, Uruguay
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker51.822, 5.882 · in the densest population, 93 records (30% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 313 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 68 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 264 km away. 337 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 4 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 313 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Asparagus officinalisAsparagus officinalisAsparagus officinalisAsparagus officinalisAsparagus officinalisAsparagus officinalisAsparagus officinalisAsparagus officinalis

Photographs: (c) Cody Hinchliff, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) CK2AZ, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Brandon Corder, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Asparagus officinalis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Soil beneficial bacteria and their role in plant growth promotion: a review
Rifat Hayat, Safdar Ali, Ummay Amara, Rabia Khalid (2010) · Annals of Microbiology
Photosynthesis under stressful environments: An overview
Muhammad Ashraf, P.J.C. Harris (2013) · Photosynthetica
The evolutionary significance of polyploidy
Yves Van de Peer, Eshchar Mizrachi, Kathleen Marchal (2017) · Nature Reviews Genetics
The biological action of saponins in animal systems: a review
George Francis, Zohar Kerem, H.P.S. Makkar, Klaus Becker (2002) · British Journal Of Nutrition
Priming: Getting Ready for Battle
Uwe Conrath, Gerold J. M. Beckers, Vı́ctor Flors, Pilar García‐Agustín (2006) · Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions
Phenological Patterns of Terrestrial Plants
Beverly J. Rathcke, Elizabeth P. Lacey (1985) · Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics
The effect of developmental and environmental factors on secondary metabolites in medicinal plants
Yanqun Li, Dexin Kong, Ying Fu, Michael R. Sussman (2020) · Plant Physiology and Biochemistry
Polyphenols: Extraction Methods, Antioxidative Action, Bioavailability and Anticarcinogenic Effects
Eva Brglez Mojzer, Maša Knez Hrnčič, Mojca Škerget, Željko Knez (2016) · Molecules
Priming in plant–pathogen interactions
Uwe Conrath, Corné M. J. Pieterse, Brigitte Mauch‐Mani (2002) · Trends in Plant Science
Recent Developments of Carboxymethyl Cellulose
Md. Saifur Rahman, Md. Saif Hasan, Ashis Sutradhar Nitai, Sunghyun Nam (2021) · Polymers
Saponins as cytotoxic agents: a review
Irma Podolak, Agnieszka Galanty, Danuta Sobolewska (2010) · Phytochemistry Reviews
The Role of Polyphenols in Abiotic Stress Response: The Influence of Molecular Structure
Dunja Šamec, Erna Karalija, Ivana Šola, Valerija Vujčić (2021) · Plants

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Asparagus 3 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 12 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.