Asparagus confertus K.Krause

Erect, glabrous, glaucous, very spiny, harsh shrublets, ±1 m high. Rhizome large, woody. Roots bearing tubers on side roots. Stems strong, woody, with short internodes, bearing spreading branches ±0.15 m long, and shorter branchlets, all closely ribbed and distinctly papillate with bulging, shiny cells. Spines orange brown, exserted, ±10 mm long, becoming smaller below branchlets, cladodes and flowers. Cladodes 25-76 mm a fascicle, erect, narrowly linear, ±10-15 x 2 mm, mucronate, margin raised, papillate. Racemes (flowering branchlets) axillary, 25-76 mm axils of branches, simple, ±50 mm long; flowers solitary or binate; tepals persisting below berry; stalk ±4 mm long, articulated near base. Stamens and gynoecium not seen. Berry (when dry and wrinkled) ±7 mm in diameter.