A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin

Asparagus,-i (s.m.II), abl. sg. asparago; ‘Asparagi’ = “suckers; young shoots springing from beneath the ground, and usually covered with scales” (Lindley); “Asparagi” “formerly used for turiones or suckers, young shoots emerging from the rootstock under ground, and at first bearing scales only, as in Asparagus” (Jackson) [> L. asparagus (asph-) asparagus; a sprout, a shoot (like asparagus) Lewis & Short; > Gk. asparagos (s.m.II),

aspharagos (s.m.II): “stone sperage, Asparagus acutifolius; the edible shoots thereof; the shoots of other plants (Liddell & Scott); see turion. NOTE: “Asparagus, Linn. Derived from a, intensive, and sparasso, to tear, some of the species being armed with strong prickles” (Paxton).

Asparagus,-i (s.m.II) L., Asparagus, (Liliaceae); “the narrow, commonly filiform, so-called leaves being really branchlets, functioning as leaves, clustered in the axils of little scales which are the true leaves” (Fernald 1950);

“Old English gardeners called it “Sperage” (Stearn 1996).

- [Asparagus albus] turiones edules (Desf.), the [scaly] suckers edible.

- [Asparagus acutifolius] turiones edules (Desf.), the [scaly] suckers edible.