Asparagus graniticus (Oberm.) Fellingham & N.L.Mey.

Erect, very spiny, greyish shrubs ±1 m high. Rhizome compact. Roots numerous, long, swollen near rhizome, gradually attenuate below, skin soft, spongy. Stems numerous, drooping when young, becoming hard, the grey, somewhat rough outer skin exuviating as white membranous strips, exposing the smooth bark underneath; internodes very short, zigzagging. Spines exserted, sharp, 10-15 mm long, present below branches, branchlets and cladode fascicles. Branchlets much thinner and shorter than branches, spreading, yellowish, closely beset with spines and cladode fascicles. Cladodes very many in a fascicle, deciduous, filiform, ±15 mm long, greyish. Flower stalks 2 at a node, divaricate. Flowers not seen. Berry ±5 mm in diameter, green (fide Bayer 3333b).