Species
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Asparagus setaceus (Kunth) Jessop

= Asparagus setaceus (Kunth) Jessop, Asparagus Fern, Climbing asparagus, Common Asparagus Fern

Climate known 57 photographs
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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 setaceus, with the common names of common asparagus fern, asparagus grass, lace fern, climbing asparagus, or ferny asparagus, is a plant in the family Asparagaceae native to southern Africa. Despite its common name, the plant is not a true fern, but has leaves that resemble one.

Text from Wikipedia, “Asparagus setaceus”, 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
(Kunth) Jessop
Native to
Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania +12
Wild records
272 in range· 160 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Feb, mean day; nights 17 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
864mm/yr
11 wet months · peak Jan 129 mm (CHELSA)
Light
24–40DLI
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: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 864 mm a year, wettest January at 129 mm, driest July at 22 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 9.0 °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 Asparagopsis setacea Kunth; Asparagus asiaticus subsp. amharicus Pic.Serm.; Asparagus asiaticus var. amharicus Pic.Serm.; Asparagus lujae De Wild.; Asparagus lujae DeWild. and 9 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern).

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

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (645 mm of 864 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.3 °C against a yearly mean of 18.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

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 864 mm a year, wettest January at 129 mm, driest July at 22 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

864 mm a year at the habitat, 645 mm of it October to March. Wettest month January at 129 mm, driest July at 22 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 619 mm to 1762 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern 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: 24 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 40 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 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

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 9.0 °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 9.0 °C, the absolute minimum 5.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 9.9 °C in July (across the envelope cells 4.0 °C to 16.6 °C), warmest day 25.9 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 9.0 °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: 56 to 63% 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 20 °C in Jun to 26 °C in Feb; mean night from 10 °C in Jul to 17 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 864 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 218 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 5.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°33.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)5.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 24–40RH 56–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 218 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 °C26 / 22–2926 / 22–2925 / 21–2823 / 20–2722 / 19–2620 / 16–2520 / 16–2421 / 17–2523 / 18–2823 / 19–2824 / 21–2925 / 21–29
Night °C17 / 13–2317 / 14–2316 / 13–2215 / 10–2113 / 7–1911 / 4–1710 / 4–1711 / 6–1712 / 8–1914 / 10–2015 / 12–2116 / 13–22
Rain mm129 / 46–309115 / 39–26099 / 57–25969 / 34–23241 / 14–14225 / 7–9422 / 3–7428 / 5–8534 / 8–8175 / 33–114107 / 56–147120 / 50–241
DLI39 / 35–4738 / 34–4334 / 31–3829 / 26–3526 / 20–3424 / 17–3125 / 18–3229 / 23–3634 / 30–4138 / 32–4440 / 34–4539 / 35–48
RH %63 / 57–6863 / 56–6863 / 57–6962 / 55–6859 / 51–6656 / 51–6456 / 49–6257 / 48–6258 / 48–6260 / 52–6462 / 55–6563 / 57–67

Each figure is the median across the 218 grid cells holding the 268 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 1865:4338 (-3.275, 36.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 5.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.6 °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 218 distinct grid cells holding the 268 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1865:4338 (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 -3.50_36.875, lapse-corrected +323 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1525 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.
NativeEthiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Comoros· introduced: Germany, Baleares, Spain, Greece, Azores, Canary Is., Madeira, Chagos Archipelago, Mauritius, Palestine, Ogasawara-shoto, Bangladesh, Norfolk Is., New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, New Zealand North, Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Cook Is., Marianas, California, Florida, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Bermuda, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Ecuador, Galápagos, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Uruguay
Kew's description“scrambling perennial” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-29.712, 31.093 · in the densest population, 110 records (40% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 272 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 160 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 68 km away. 1290 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 272 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Asparagus setaceusAsparagus setaceusAsparagus setaceusAsparagus setaceusAsparagus setaceusAsparagus setaceusAsparagus setaceusAsparagus setaceus

Photographs: (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Piotr Panek, 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 setaceus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Traditional management of ear, nose and throat (ENT) diseases in Central Kenya
Grace N. Njoroge, Rainer W. Bussmann (2006) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
USDA plant hardiness zone map
United States., Henry M. Cathey (1990)
Green nanotechnology of trends in future energy: a review
Kelvii Wei Guo (2011) · International Journal of Energy Research
Flora of Macaronesia. Checklist of vascular plants. 4. revised edition
Aslak Kappel Hansen, P. Sunding (1993) · Sommerfeltia
New universal ITS2 primers for high-resolution herbivory analyses using DNA metabarcoding in both tropical and temperate zones
Rosemary J. Moorhouse‐Gann, Jenny C. Dunn, Natasha de Vere, Martine Goder (2018) · Scientific Reports
Ultralight and hyperelastic SiC nanofiber aerogel spring for personal thermal energy regulation
Limeng Song, Bingbing Fan, Yongqiang Chen, Qiancheng Gao (2022) · Journal of Advanced Ceramics
A second update to the checklist of the vascular flora alien to Italy
Gabriele Galasso, Fabio Conti, Lorenzo Peruzzi, Alessandro Alessandrini (2024) · Plant Biosystems - An International Journal Dealing with all Aspects of Plant Biology
An inventory and analysis of the food plants of southern Africa
A.K. Welcome, B.-E. Van Wyk (2018) · South African Journal of Botany
Species composition and plant use in old urban homegardens in Rio Claro, Southeast of Brazil
Mayra Teruya Eichemberg, Maria Christina de Mello Amorozo, Leila Cunha de Moura (2009) · Acta Botanica Brasilica
Chromosome-level genome assembly of bunching onion illuminates genome evolution and flavor formation in Allium crops
Nanqiao Liao, Zhongyuan Hu, Jinshan Miao, Xiaodi Hu (2022) · Nature Communications

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 download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried 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)
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 2026-09-19 (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 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
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 123 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.