Asparagus is a pretty renowned vegetable as vegetables go , ill-famed for giving yougreen smelly pee . But now the humble lance have reach popularity again as citizenry are just learning how these footling green shuck actually produce .

For those not in the know , the genusAsparaguscontains around 300 specie but the comfortably known is the garden asparagus which is commonly consumed across the world . Asparagus is a large source of all dissimilar kinds of vitamin , include K , which is used for blood coagulation , as well as vitamin C and folate .

ⓘ IFLScience is not responsible for subject matter shared from outside internet site .

![Four green asparagus stalks being cut and put in a metal basket](https://assets.iflscience.com/assets/articleNo/69956/iImg/69508/aparagus picking.png)

Asparagus plants can provide a crop each spring.Image Credit: iMarzi/Shutterstock

Asparagus is a herbaceous perennial vegetable that can be a very foresighted - terminal figure craw , lasting up to 20 days . grant to theRoyal Horticultural Society , asparagus can be grown from dormant plants visit crowns or from seeds .

While it ’s best to not harvest your Asparagus officinales for the first dyad of year to allow the plant to get established , after that initial period you should be able to feed homegrown asparagus each spring for many years . These petty green spear develop straight upright from the soil and are but cut at the bottom to be harvest .

Asparagus plants can be virile or distaff but male plants are said to produce more spears with a better quality . After harvest time , the plants can grow fern - like leaves before dying back over winter , becoming ready to harvest again in the spring . Female plants can even produce red berries in the declination . In 2018 , theleading producersof Asparagus officinales were China , Peru , and Mexico .

Some specie are poisonous when corrode but are used for ornamentation and even floristry because of their appeal green leafage .

White edible asparagus is even produce in some function of the world where the spears never see the sun and thus never modernise the classic green color . Instead , they are either grown totally in the shade or rest clandestine . This forbid chlorophyll , and therefore green color , from develop inside the cell .