Asparagus, Wild

Information on Wild Asparagus

Common Name: Wild Asparagus
Scientific Name: Asparagus prostratus
Irish Name: Lus súgach
Family Group: Asparagaceae
Distribution: View Map (Courtesy of the BSBI)
Flowering Period


Click for list of all flowering by month
Wild Asparagus is not easily confused with other wild plants on this web site.


Low-growing or prostrate, hairless perennial, this plant is found on sandhills and on short grassy turf on the S.E. coast – counties Wicklow, Wexford and Waterford.  It could very easily be overlooked as is leaves are small scales with little needle-like branches growing in their axils.  The flowers are very tiny, solitary, yellowish and bell-shaped and bloom from June to August.  The fruit is a red berry.  It is a native plant which belongs to the family Asparagaceae. 

This plant was kindly pointed out to me by Roy Watson, a member of the Wexford Naturalists Field Club, at Ballyteigue, Co Wexford in 2008.  I photographed it on that occasion.   

If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre

This is a protected species under the Flora (Protection) Order 2015 and is classed as ENDANGERED in the Red Data List of Vascular Plants 2016

Asparagus, Wild
Asparagus, Wild
Asparagus, Wild