Cape Smilax

Asparagus asparagoides grows as a herbaceous vine with a scrambling or climbing habit which can reach 3 m (10 ft) in length. It has shiny green leaf-like structures (cladodes) which are flattened stems rather than true leaves. They measure up to 4 cm long by 2 cm wide. The pendent white flowers appear over winter and spring, from July to September. It is rhizomatous, and bears tubers which reach 6 cm (2.4 in) by 2 cm (1.8 in) in size.

Related species and diagnostic characters. Within southern Africa, it is frequently confused with the closely related species Asparagus ovatus and Asparagus multituberosus. All three species have very similar growth forms and cladodes. The key diagnostic character for distinguishing them is their tuber arrangement (although, even in this key diagnostic character, there is a gradation, making it difficult to identify intermediate specimens). Asparagus asparagoides has radially arranged tubers, very close to the rhizome (or even sessile). Asparagus ovatus has distant tubers that are far removed from the rhizome. This is likely to be an adaptation to the loose sands of its typical habitat. A. asparagoides also has tubers that are relatively few (c. 12) and large (up to 15 cm long). Asparagus multituberosus has tubers that are very numerous and small (c. 5 cm). …

It ranges throughout tropical Africa, south to Namibia, and the fynbos in South Africa, as far south as Cape Town. It has become naturalised in parts of southern California and Australia, where it is considered an invasive plant.

Asparagus asparagoides, often under the name smilax, is commonly used in floral arrangements or home decorating.