Asparagus spinescens Steud.

Erect shrub ±0.35 m high, with pale stems and dark olive-grey cladodes. Stems minutely pubescent, pale grey. Branches ascending, placed close together. Spines flanking the branches at the axils and below the cladode fascicles, sharp, apex orange, usually bearing the cladode fascicles halfway. Cladodes terete, ±7 mm long, smooth, obtuse above and apiculate, somewhat attenuated below. Flowers apical, 2-4, on spineless short branchlets, surrounded by a cladode fascicle; tepals ±1.5 mm long; stalks ±3 mm long, disc placed near the base, where stalks are surrounded by small membranous bracts. Stamens with yellow anthers. Ovary with 4 ovules in each locule; style half as long as ovary. Berry globose, ±4 mm in diameter, black, the perianth persistent.