Asparagus taliensis Seeds | Tali Asparagus
LATIN NAME: Asparagus taliensis
COMMON NAME: Tali Asparagus
Plant Profile
Tali Asparagus is a perennial asparagus relative from the mountains of southwestern China, with fine, feathery shoots of needle-like cladodes rising from a clustered rootstock. It forms an upright, airy clump half a metre to a metre tall that turns gold in autumn before dying back for the winter.
In the wild it grows on grassy slopes and scrub edges at altitude, where the summers are cool and the drainage is sharp. It is little grown outside China, which is precisely its interest: a hardy, ornamental asparagus relative with the texture of the edible one and a mountain’s tolerance of cold.
Science & Biotechnology
Chinese Asparagus species are still being sorted taxonomically, and this one has appeared in comparative work clarifying the group’s boundaries within a large genus. The famous yin-nourishing root of Chinese medicine, Tian Men Dong, comes from a different species, Asparagus cochinchinensis, a distinction worth stating plainly for readers meeting the family’s names.
Like all asparagus relatives it carries its photosynthesis in cladodes, flattened stem branches, rather than true leaves, and its thread-fine cladodes are a study in how far that strategy can be taken. Its cladodes are borne in tufts along the shoots, and the autumn gold is a true senescence rather than a frost effect, which makes it dependable in cold districts. The genus is chemically rich in steroidal saponins across its members, and comparative assays have included this species in screening work on the family’s chemistry.
Uses & Benefits
It is grown as an ornamental for its fine texture, excellent at the front of a border among stones, and for its autumn gold. Its young shoots are said to be eaten locally in its home range, but it is the edible asparagus, Asparagus officinalis, that gardeners grow for the kitchen.
For collectors of the asparagus family it fills a niche the tender houseplant species cannot: fully hardy, winter-dormant and happy outdoors. Its rootstock thickens with age and old clumps can be divided, which gives gardeners a shortcut to a mature specimen. In a town garden it is also a good subject for a shaded courtyard, tolerating dry shade better than most feathery plants.
Growing from Seed
The seed germinates best after a cool, moist stratification of four to six weeks; then sow half a centimetre deep in a loose, gritty mix.
Keep it cool and just moist; germination is drawn out over several weeks, and the seedlings look like tiny versions of the adult plant.
Grow them on in light shade for the first season and plant out into humus-rich, free-draining soil in sun or half shade, with the crown just below the surface and the roots spread. Mark the position of the clump in autumn, since it disappears completely in winter and is easily dug up by accident before it shoots again in May.
Our Take
A hardy, feathery asparagus relative from the mountains of the southwest, grown for texture and autumn gold rather than for the kitchen.
Related Reading
Gardeners who grow Tali Asparagus often pair it with these related subjects: