Horticulture Heading

 

Book cover - Common Weeds of New ZealandAn Illustrated Guide to
Common Weeds
of New Zealand

 

Asparagus asparagoides
smilax, bridal creeper

Family ASPARAGACEAE

Reproduced from
Common Weeds of New Zealand
by Ian Popay, Paul Champion & Trevor James
ISBN 0 473 09760 5
by kind permission of the
New Zealand Plant Protection Society

Publication or other use of images or descriptive text on these pages is unauthorised unless written permission is obtained from the authors and publisher.
Appropriate acknowledgement of the publication Common Weeds of New Zealand must always be given.

Available from Nationwide Book Distributors

Asparagus asparagoides Asparagus asparagoides

Scrambling or twining perennial that grows up to 3 m tall in supporting shrubs or hedges. The 'leaves' are actually green, flattened cladodes that resemble leaves. Flower small, greenish-white, followed by red berries.

  • Flowers Greenish-white, 5-6 mm long, singly or in pairs in the leaf axils. Flowers July-Aug.
  • Fruit Round red berry, 6-10 mm in diameter. Two to eight black seeds, about 2 mm in diameter.
  • Leaves Light green cladodes (green, flattened stems that resemble leaves), solitary at each node, 10-35 mm long by 4-15 mm wide, flattened, ovate, pointed, with about seven prominent veins.
  • Stems Tortuous, green or slightly woody and brownish up to 3 m long, branches spreading, rough angles.
  • Roots White, fleshy, tuberous, in dense underground clusters.

Habitat

Hedges, coastal slopes, road-side banks and abandoned quarries.

Distribution

Common in the northern half of NI, diminishing southwards. Found at Kerikeri and Dargaville in North Auckland, Auckland, Hawkes Bay (Napier) and in the Manawatu. In SI at Nelson City, Christchurch and Banks Peninsula. Originally from South Africa.

Comments

Listed on the National Pest Plant Accord (see Introduction for details).

Derivation of botanical name

Asparagus (Lat.) = asparagus; asparagoides (Lat.) = asparagus-like.

 


Get Acrobat Reader

Web-notes: Weed Links

On this site

Reproduced from Common Weeds of New Zealand:

External Links

WeedbustersWeedbusters New Zealand
Weedbusters is a weeds awareness and education programme that aims to protect New Zealand's environment from the increasing weed problem.
AgPest
A free tool to assist farmers and agricultural professionals in decision-making regarding weed and pest identification, biology, impact and management.
Weed keyNew Zealand Weeds Key
An interactive identification key to the weeds of New Zealand. Developed at Landcare Research.

New Zealand Plant Conservation Network naturalised plants
Search for information on more than 2500 naturalised and weedy plants.
NZ Plant Protection SocietyNew Zealand Plant Protection Society
Their main objective: "To pool and exchange information on the biology of weeds, invertebrate and vertebrate pests, pathogens and beneficial organisms and methods for modifying their effects."
 
Massey UniversityMassey University Weeds Database
A site providing information about New Zealand weeds and weed control. It has a series of pages showing pictures of New Zealand weeds, notes on identification and control. It also provides information on a university paper entitled Controlling Weeds.
 

More Plant Profiles


Home | Journal | Newsletter | Conferences
Awards | Join RNZIH | RNZIH Directory | Links

© 2000–2024 Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture


Last updated: March 1, 2021