Asparagus crassicladus Jessop

Scandent or spreading, somewhat coarse shrublets up to 2 m high. Rhizome broad, flat, hard, woody. Roots cylindrical, somewhat swollen, pale; side roots forming fusiform tubers. Stems stout, glabrous with age, bearing raised, short, recurved spines. Branches short, somewhat spreading, zigzagging, densely and minutely pubescent when young, greyish, bearing sessile cladode fascicles or these placed on branchlets. Cladodes curved, up to ±25 mm long and 1 mm in diameter, oval in cross section, succulent, apiculate, base discoid, placed on a semiglobose torus, covered by circular pads. Flowering branchlets 1-several, arising next to cladode-branchlets, thin, minutely pustulate, drying black, bearing sessile and pedunculate flower fascicles. Flowers obconical in bud, subtended by membranous bracts; tepals narrowly ovate, ±3 mm long, yellow or cream. Stamens with small anthers. Ovary with 4 ovules in each locule; ovoid; style short with 3 short spreading stigmas. Berry not seen.