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Asparagus

From Wikipedia, in a visual modern way
Asparagus
Asparagus-Bundle.jpg
A bundle of cultivated asparagus
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Asparagales
Family: Asparagaceae
Subfamily: Asparagoideae
Genus: Asparagus
Species:
A. officinalis
Binomial name
Asparagus officinalis
Synonyms[2]
List
  • Asparagus altilis (L.) Asch.
  • Asparagus caspius Schult. & Schult.f.
  • Asparagus esculentus Salisb.
  • Asparagus fiori Sennen
  • Asparagus hedecarpus Andrews ex Baker"
  • Asparagus hortensis Mill. ex Baker
  • Asparagus littoralis Steven
  • Asparagus oxycarpus Steven
  • Asparagus paragus Gueldenst. ex Ledeb.
  • Asparagus polyphyllus Steven ex Ledeb.
  • Asparagus sativus Mill.
  • Asparagus setiformis Krylov
  • Asparagus vulgaris Gueldenst. ex Ledeb.
For other uses, see Asparagus (disambiguation).
A multitude of cultivated asparagus bundles
A multitude of cultivated asparagus bundles
Serving of "white asparagus" with Hollandaise sauce and potatoes
Serving of "white asparagus" with Hollandaise sauce and potatoes

Asparagus, or garden asparagus, folk name sparrow grass, scientific name Asparagus officinalis, is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus Asparagus. Its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable.

It was once classified in the lily family, like the related Allium species, onions and garlic. However, genetic research places lilies, Allium, and asparagus in three separate families—the Liliaceae, Amaryllidaceae, and Asparagaceae, respectively— the Amaryllidaceae and Asparagaceae are grouped together in the order Asparagales. Sources differ as to the native range of Asparagus officinalis, but generally include most of Europe and western temperate Asia.[4][5][6][7] It is widely cultivated as a vegetable crop.

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Flowering plant

Flowering plant

Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae, commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ἀγγεῖον /angeion and σπέρμα / sperma ('seed'), meaning those plants that produce their seeds enclosed within a fruit. They are by far the most diverse group of land plants with 64 orders, 416 families, approximately 13,000 known genera and 300,000 known species. Angiosperms were formerly called Magnoliophyta.

Asparagus (genus)

Asparagus (genus)

Asparagus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Asparagoideae. It comprises up to 300 species. Most are evergreen long-lived perennial plants growing from the understory as lianas, bushes or climbing plants. The best-known species is the edible Asparagus officinalis, commonly referred to as just asparagus. Some other members of the genus, such as Asparagus densiflorus, are grown as ornamental plants.

Vegetable

Vegetable

Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, leaves, roots, and seeds. An alternative definition of the term is applied somewhat arbitrarily, often by culinary and cultural tradition. It may exclude foods derived from some plants that are fruits, flowers, nuts, and cereal grains, but include savoury fruits such as tomatoes and courgettes, flowers such as broccoli, and seeds such as pulses.

Allium

Allium

Allium is a genus of monocotyledonous flowering plants with hundreds of species, including the cultivated onion, garlic, scallion, shallot, leek, and chives. The generic name Allium is the Latin word for garlic, and the type species for the genus is Allium sativum which means "cultivated garlic".

Onion

Onion

An onion, also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classified as a separate species until 2011. Its close relatives include garlic, scallion, leek, and chive.

Garlic

Garlic

Garlic is a species of bulbous flowering plant in the genus Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, Welsh onion and Chinese onion. It is native to South Asia, Central Asia and northeastern Iran and has long been used as a seasoning worldwide, with a history of several thousand years of human consumption and use. It was known to ancient Egyptians and has been used as both a food flavoring and a traditional medicine. China produces 76% of the world's supply of garlic.

Liliaceae

Liliaceae

The lily family, Liliaceae, consists of about 15 genera and 610 species of flowering plants within the order Liliales. They are monocotyledonous, perennial, herbaceous, often bulbous geophytes. Plants in this family have evolved with a fair amount of morphological diversity despite genetic similarity. Common characteristics include large flowers with parts arranged in threes: with six colored or patterned petaloid tepals arranged in two whorls, six stamens and a superior ovary. The leaves are linear in shape, with their veins usually arranged parallel to the edges, single and arranged alternating on the stem, or in a rosette at the base. Most species are grown from bulbs, although some have rhizomes. First described in 1789, the lily family became a paraphyletic "catch-all" (wastebasket) group of lilioid monocots that did not fit into other families and included a great number of genera now included in other families and in some cases in other orders. Consequently, many sources and descriptions labelled "Liliaceae" deal with the broader sense of the family.

Amaryllidaceae

Amaryllidaceae

The Amaryllidaceae are a family of herbaceous, mainly perennial and bulbous flowering plants in the monocot order Asparagales. The family takes its name from the genus Amaryllis and is commonly known as the amaryllis family. The leaves are usually linear, and the flowers are usually bisexual and symmetrical, arranged in umbels on the stem. The petals and sepals are undifferentiated as tepals, which may be fused at the base into a floral tube. Some also display a corona. Allyl sulfide compounds produce the characteristic odour of the onion subfamily (Allioideae).

Asparagaceae

Asparagaceae

Asparagaceae, known as the asparagus family, is a family of flowering plants, placed in the order Asparagales of the monocots. The family name is based on the edible garden asparagus, Asparagus officinalis. Those who live in the temperate climates may be surprised to learn that this family includes both common garden plants as well as common houseplants. The garden plants include asparagus, yucca, bluebell, and hosta, and the houseplants include snake plant, corn cane, spider plant and plumosus fern.

Asparagales

Asparagales

Asparagales is an order of plants in modern classification systems such as the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) and the Angiosperm Phylogeny Web. The order takes its name from the type family Asparagaceae and is placed in the monocots amongst the lilioid monocots. The order has only recently been recognized in classification systems. It was first put forward by Huber in 1977 and later taken up in the Dahlgren system of 1985 and then the APG in 1998, 2003 and 2009. Before this, many of its families were assigned to the old order Liliales, a very large order containing almost all monocots with colorful tepals and lacking starch in their endosperm. DNA sequence analysis indicated that many of the taxa previously included in Liliales should actually be redistributed over three orders, Liliales, Asparagales, and Dioscoreales. The boundaries of the Asparagales and of its families have undergone a series of changes in recent years; future research may lead to further changes and ultimately greater stability. In the APG circumscription, Asparagales is the largest order of monocots with 14 families, 1,122 genera, and about 36,000 species.

Description

Asparagus shoot before becoming woody
Asparagus shoot before becoming woody

Asparagus is a herbaceous, perennial plant[8] growing to 100–150 centimetres (40–60 inches) tall, with stout stems with much-branched, feathery foliage. The 'leaves' are in fact needle-like cladodes (modified stems) in the axils of scale leaves; they are 6–32 millimetres (1⁄4–1+1⁄4 inches) long and 1 mm (1⁄32 in) broad, and clustered four to 15 together, in a rose-like shape.[9] The root system, often referred to as a 'crown', is adventitious and the root type is fasciculated. The flowers are bell-shaped, greenish-white to yellowish, 4.5–6.5 mm (3⁄16–1⁄4 in) long, with six tepals partially fused together at the base; they are produced singly or in clusters of two or three in the junctions of the branchlets. It is usually dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate plants, but sometimes hermaphrodite flowers are found. The fruit is a small red berry 6–10 mm (1⁄4–13⁄32 in) in diameter, which is toxic to humans.[10]

Plants native to the western coasts of Europe (from northern Spain to northwest Germany, north Ireland, and Great Britain) are treated as Asparagus officinalis subsp. prostratus (Dumort.) Corb., distinguished by its low-growing, often prostrate stems growing to only 30–70 centimetres (12–28 in) high, and shorter cladodes 2–18 mm (3⁄32–23⁄32 in) long.[5][11] It is treated as a distinct species, Asparagus prostratus Dumort, by some authors.[12][13]

Chemistry

Asparagus foliage turns bright yellow in autumn.
Asparagus foliage turns bright yellow in autumn.

Certain compounds in asparagus are metabolized to yield ammonia and various sulfur-containing degradation products, including various thiols and thioesters,[14] which following consumption give urine a characteristic smell.

Some[15] of the volatile organic compounds responsible for the smell are:[16][17]

Subjectively, the first two are the most pungent, while the last two (sulfur-oxidized) give a sweet aroma. A mixture of these compounds form a "reconstituted asparagus urine" odor. This was first investigated in 1891 by Marceli Nencki, who attributed the smell to methanethiol.[18] These compounds originate in the asparagus as asparagusic acid and its derivatives, as these are the only sulfur-containing compounds unique to asparagus. As these are more present in young asparagus, this accords with the observation that the smell is more pronounced after eating young asparagus. The biological mechanism for the production of these compounds is less clear.

The onset of the asparagus urine smell is remarkably rapid while the decline is slower. The smell has been reported to be detectable 15 to 30 minutes after ingestion[19][20] and subsides with a half-life of approximately four hours.[21]

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Perennial plant

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also widely used to distinguish plants with little or no woody growth from trees and shrubs, which are also technically perennials.

Aerial stem modification

Aerial stem modification

Aerial stem modifications are modifications to the aerial stems, vegetative buds and floral buds of plants growing in different conditions and which perform functions such as climbing, protection,support,photosynthesis, synthesis of food, or vegetative propagation. Aerial stem structures that undergo modifications to perform these special functions include tendrils, thorns, hooks, phylloclade, tuberous stems and bulbils. The auxiliary or the terminal part of the modified structures show their stem nature.

Fascicle (botany)

Fascicle (botany)

In botany, a fascicle is a bundle of leaves or flowers growing crowded together; alternatively the term might refer to the vascular tissues that supply such an organ with nutrients. However, vascular tissues may occur in fascicles even when the organs they supply are not fascicled.

Flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants. Flowers produce gametophytes, which in flowering plants consist of a few haploid cells which produce gametes. The "male" gametophyte, which produces non-motile sperm, is enclosed within pollen grains; the "female" gametophyte is contained within the ovule. When pollen from the anther of a flower is deposited on the stigma, this is called pollination. Some flowers may self-pollinate, producing seed using pollen from the same flower or a different flower of the same plant, but others have mechanisms to prevent self-pollination and rely on cross-pollination, when pollen is transferred from the anther of one flower to the stigma of another flower on a different individual of the same species.

Fruit

Fruit

In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering.

Berry (botany)

Berry (botany)

In botany, a berry is a fleshy fruit without a stone (pit) produced from a single flower containing one ovary. Berries so defined include grapes, currants, and tomatoes, as well as cucumbers, eggplants (aubergines) and bananas, but exclude certain fruits that meet the culinary definition of berries, such as strawberries and raspberries. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire outer layer of the ovary wall ripens into a potentially edible "pericarp". Berries may be formed from one or more carpels from the same flower. The seeds are usually embedded in the fleshy interior of the ovary, but there are some non-fleshy exceptions, such as peppers, with air rather than pulp around their seeds.

Europe

Europe

Europe is a continent comprising the westernmost peninsulas of Eurasia, located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with both Africa and Asia. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east. Europe is commonly considered to be separated from Asia by the watershed of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Greater Caucasus, the Black Sea and the waterways of the Turkish Straits.

Spain

Spain

Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country primarily located in southwestern Europe with parts of territory in the Atlantic Ocean and across the Mediterranean Sea. The largest part of Spain is situated on the Iberian Peninsula; its territory also includes the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla in Africa. The country's mainland is bordered to the south by Gibraltar; to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea; to the north by France, Andorra and the Bay of Biscay; and to the west by Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean. With an area of 505,990 km2 (195,360 sq mi), Spain is the second-largest country in the European Union (EU) and, with a population exceeding 47.4 million, the fourth-most populous EU member state. Spain's capital and largest city is Madrid; other major urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Zaragoza, Málaga, Murcia, Palma de Mallorca, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and Bilbao.

Germany

Germany

Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second-most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between the Baltic and North seas to the north, and the Alps to the south; it covers an area of 357,022 square kilometres (137,847 sq mi), with a population of around 84 million within its 16 constituent states. Germany borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, and France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands to the west. The nation's capital and most populous city is Berlin and its main financial centre is Frankfurt; the largest urban area is the Ruhr.

Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest in the world.

Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe. With an area of 209,331 km2 (80,823 sq mi), it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is dominated by a maritime climate with narrow temperature differences between seasons. The 60% smaller island of Ireland is to the west—these islands, along with over 1,000 smaller surrounding islands and named substantial rocks, form the British Isles archipelago.

Metabolism

Metabolism

Metabolism is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run cellular processes; the conversion of food to building blocks for proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and some carbohydrates; and the elimination of metabolic wastes. These enzyme-catalyzed reactions allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. The word metabolism can also refer to the sum of all chemical reactions that occur in living organisms, including digestion and the transportation of substances into and between different cells, in which case the above described set of reactions within the cells is called intermediary metabolism.

Nomenclature

A. officinalis is widely known simply as "asparagus", and may be confused with unrelated plant species also known as "asparagus", such as Ornithogalum pyrenaicum known as "Prussian asparagus" for its edible shoots.

The English word asparagus derives from classical Latin but the plant was once known in English as sperage, from the Medieval Latin sparagus.[Note 1] This term itself derives from the Greek aspharagos or asparagos, but the Greek terms are of uncertain provenance: the latter form admits the possibility of a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to jerk, scatter," directly or via a Persian descendant meaning "twig, branch"; but the Ancient Greek word itself, meaning "gully, chasm," seems to be of Pre-Greek origin instead.

Asparagus was corrupted in some places to "sparrow grass"; indeed, John Walker wrote in 1791 that "Sparrowgrass is so general that asparagus has an air of stiffness and pedantry".[22] The name 'sparrow grass' was still in common use in rural East Anglia, England well into the twentieth century.[23]

In Turkish, asparagus is known as kuşkonmaz,[24] literally "[a] bird won't land [on it]", in reference to the shape of the plant.

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Ornithogalum pyrenaicum

Ornithogalum pyrenaicum

Ornithogalum pyrenaicum, also called Prussian asparagus, wild asparagus, Bath asparagus, Pyrenees star of Bethlehem, or spiked star of Bethlehem, is a plant whose young flower shoots may be eaten as a vegetable, similar to asparagus.

Medieval Latin

Medieval Latin

Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. In this region it served as the primary written language, though local languages were also written to varying degrees. Latin functioned as the main medium of scholarly exchange, as the liturgical language of the Church, and as the working language of science, literature, law, and administration.

Folk etymology

Folk etymology

Folk etymology is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more familiar one. The form or the meaning of an archaic, foreign, or otherwise unfamiliar word is reinterpreted as resembling more familiar words or morphemes.

Cultivation

See also: List of asparagus diseases

Since asparagus often originates in maritime habitats, it thrives in soils that are too saline for normal weeds to grow. Thus, a little salt was traditionally used to suppress weeds in beds intended for asparagus; this has the disadvantage that the soil cannot be used for anything else. Some places are better for growing asparagus than others. The fertility of the soil is a large factor. "Crowns" are planted in winter, and the first shoots appear in spring; the first pickings or "thinnings" are known as sprue asparagus. Sprue has thin stems.[25]

A breed of "early-season asparagus" that can be harvested two months earlier than usual was announced by a UK grower in early 2011.[26] This variety does not need to lie dormant and blooms at 7 °C (45 °F), rather than the usual 9 °C (48 °F).

Purple asparagus differs from its green and white counterparts in having high sugar and low fibre levels. Purple asparagus was originally developed in Italy, near the city of Albenga and commercialized under the variety name 'Violetto d' Albenga'.[27] Purple asparagus can also turn green while being cooked due to its sensitivity to heat.[28]

  • German botanical illustration of asparagus

    German botanical illustration of asparagus

  • Green asparagus for sale in New York City

    Green asparagus for sale in New York City

  • Harvest of white asparagus in Hockenheim, Germany

Companion planting

Asparagus is said to be a useful companion plant for tomatoes, as the tomato plant repels the asparagus beetle. Asparagus may repel some harmful root nematodes that affect tomato plants.[29]

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List of asparagus diseases

List of asparagus diseases

This article is a list of diseases of asparagus.

Albenga

Albenga

Albenga is a city and comune situated on the Gulf of Genoa on the Italian Riviera in the Province of Savona in Liguria, northern Italy. Albenga has the nickname of city of a hundred spires. The economy is mostly based on tourism, local commerce and agriculture. Albenga has six hamlets: Lusignano, San Fedele, Campochiesa, Leca, Bastia, Salea.

Hockenheim

Hockenheim

Hockenheim is a town in northwest Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about 20 km south of Mannheim and 10 km west of Walldorf. It is located in the Upper Rhine valley on the tourist theme routes "Baden Asparagus Route" and Bertha Benz Memorial Route. The town is widely known for its Hockenheimring, a motor racing course, which has hosted over 30 Formula One German Grand Prix races since 1970.

Tomato

Tomato

The tomato is the edible berry of the plant Solanum lycopersicum, commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word tomatl gave rise to the Spanish word tomate, from which the English word tomato derived. Its domestication and use as a cultivated food may have originated with the indigenous peoples of Mexico. The Aztecs used tomatoes in their cooking at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, and after the Spanish encountered the tomato for the first time after their contact with the Aztecs, they brought the plant to Europe, in a widespread transfer of plants known as the Columbian exchange. From there, the tomato was introduced to other parts of the European-colonized world during the 16th century.

Asparagus beetle

Asparagus beetle

Crioceris, or asparagus beetle, is a genus of the family Chrysomelidae of beetles. The name is neo-Latin from Greek κριός, ram and κέρας, horn. Not all species in the genus Crioceris feed on asparagus. Some studies have found low genetic diversity among groups of isolated Chrysomelidae, and use Wolbachia species as a genetic marker.

Uses

Only young asparagus shoots are commonly eaten: once the buds start to open ("ferning out"), the shoots quickly turn woody.[30] The roots contain starch.[31]

Water makes up 93% of asparagus's composition.[32] Asparagus is low in food energy and very low in sodium. It is a good source of vitamin B6, calcium, magnesium, and zinc, and a very good source of dietary fibre, protein, beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, thiamin, riboflavin, rutin, niacin, folic acid, iron, phosphorus, potassium, copper, manganese, and selenium,[33][34] as well as chromium, a trace mineral that regulates the ability of insulin to transport glucose from the bloodstream into cells.[35] The amino acid asparagine gets its name from asparagus, from which it was first isolated, as the asparagus plant is relatively rich in this compound.

The shoots are prepared and served in a number of ways around the world, typically as an appetizer[36] or vegetable side dish. In Asian-style cooking, asparagus is often stir-fried. Cantonese restaurants in the United States often serve asparagus stir-fried with chicken, shrimp, or beef. It may also be quickly grilled over charcoal or hardwood embers, and is also used as an ingredient in some stews and soups. In recent years, asparagus eaten raw as a component of a salad has regained popularity,[37] although may cause digestive issues for some.[31]

Asparagus can also be pickled and stored for several years. Some brands label shoots prepared in this way as "marinated".

Stem thickness indicates the age of the plant (and not the age of the stalk), with the thicker stems coming from older plants. Older, thicker stalks can be woody, although peeling the skin at the base removes the tough layer. Peeled asparagus will poach much faster.[38] The bottom portion of asparagus often contains sand and soil, so thorough cleaning is generally advised before cooking. Plants bearing seeds produce spears that are smaller and thinner, and plants without seeds produce larger and thicker spears.[39] Thickness and thinness are not an indication of tenderness or toughness. The stalks are thick or thin from the moment they sprout from the ground.[39]

Green asparagus is eaten worldwide, and the availability of imports throughout the year has made it less of a delicacy than it once was.[11] In Europe, according to one source, the "asparagus season is a highlight of the foodie calendar"; in the UK this traditionally begins on 23 April and ends on Midsummer Day.[40][41] As in continental Europe, due to the short growing season and demand for local produce, asparagus commands a premium price.

Commercial production

Cultivated asparagus output in 2005 shown as a percentage of the top producer (China) .mw-parser-output .legend{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .legend-color{display:inline-block;min-width:1.25em;height:1.25em;line-height:1.25;margin:1px 0;text-align:center;border:1px solid black;background-color:transparent;color:black}.mw-parser-output .legend-text{}  100   10   1
Cultivated asparagus output in 2005 shown as a percentage of the top producer (China)
  100
  10
  1

The top asparagus importers (2016) were the United States (214,735 tonnes), followed by Germany (24,484 tonnes), and Canada (19,224 tonnes).[42]

China is by far the world's largest producer: in 2017 it produced 7,845,162 tonnes, followed by Peru with 383,098 tonnes and Mexico with 245,681 tonnes.[42] U.S. production was concentrated in California, Michigan, and Washington.[43][44] The annual production for white asparagus in Germany is 57,000 tonnes (61% of consumer demand).[45]

When grown under tunnels, growers can extend the harvest season. In the UK, it is estimated that the asparagus harvest season can begin as early as mid-February and continue into late autumn by growing cold-resistant cultivars under heated polytunnels. Furthermore, late season harvests can be achieved using 'reverse season growth' where spears are left to fern between March–August and harvested in September–October.[46][47]

In Asia, an alternative approach to cultivating asparagus has been employed and is referred to as 'Mother Stalk Method' where three to five stalks per plant are allowed to develop into fern, while harvesting adjacent spears.[48]

White asparagus

Steam boiling asparagus in a pot
Steam boiling asparagus in a pot
asparagus with Hollandaise sauce
asparagus with Hollandaise sauce

White asparagus is very popular in Europe and western Asia. White asparagus is the result of applying a blanching technique while the asparagus shoots are growing.[49] To cultivate white asparagus, the shoots are covered with soil as they grow, i.e. earthed up; without exposure to sunlight, no photosynthesis starts, and the shoots remain white. Compared to green asparagus, the locally cultivated so-called "white gold" or "edible ivory" asparagus, also referred to as "the royal vegetable",[50] is believed to be less bitter and much more tender. Freshness is very important, and the lower ends of white asparagus must be peeled before cooking or raw consumption.

Only seasonally on the menu, asparagus dishes are advertised outside many restaurants, usually from late April to June. For the French style, asparagus is often boiled or steamed and served with Hollandaise sauce, White sauce, melted butter or most recently with olive oil and Parmesan cheese.[51] Tall, narrow asparagus cooking pots allow the shoots to be steamed gently, their tips staying out of the water.

During the German Spargelsaison or Spargelzeit ("asparagus season" or "asparagus time"), the asparagus season that traditionally finishes on 24 June, roadside stands and open-air markets sell about half of the country's white asparagus consumption.[52]

In western Himalayan regions, such as Nepal and north-western India wild asparagus is harvested as a seasonal vegetable delicacy known as Kurilo or Jhijhirkani.[53]

Effects on urine

The effect of eating asparagus on urine excreted afterwards has long been observed:

[Asparagus] cause a powerful and disagreeable smell in the urine, as everybody knows.

— Treatise of All Sorts of Foods, Louis Lémery, 1702[54]

asparagus... affects the urine with a foetid smell (especially if cut when they are white) and therefore have been suspected by some physicians as not friendly to the kidneys; when they are older, and begin to ramify, they lose this quality; but then they are not so agreeable.

— "An Essay Concerning the Nature of Aliments", John Arbuthnot, 1735[55]

A few Stems of Asparagus eaten, shall give our Urine a disagreeable Odour...

— "Letter to the Royal Academy of Brussels", Benjamin Franklin, c. 1781[56]

Asparagus "...transforms my chamber-pot into a flask of perfume."

— Marcel Proust (1871–1922)[57]

Asparagus contains asparagusic acid. When the vegetable is digested, a group of volatile sulfur-containing compounds is produced.[58]

Asparagus has been eaten and cultivated for at least two millennia but the association between odorous urine and asparagus consumption was not observed until the late 17th century when sulfur-rich fertilisers became common in agriculture.[59] Small-scale studies noted that the "asparagus urine" odour was not produced by all individuals and estimates as to the proportion of the population who are excretors (reporting a noticeable asparagus urine odour after eating asparagus) has ranged from about 40%[60] to as high as 79%.[61][21] When excretors are exposed to non-excretor urine after asparagus consumption, however, the characteristic asparagus urine odour is usually reported.[59] More recent work has confirmed that a small proportion of individuals do not produce asparagus urine, and amongst those that do, some cannot detect the odour due to a single-nucleotide polymorphism within a cluster of olfactory receptors.[62]

Debate exists about the universality of producing the sulfurous smell, as well as the ability to detect it. Originally, this was thought to be because some people digested asparagus differently from others, so some excreted odorous urine after eating asparagus, and others did not. In the 1980s, three studies from France,[63] China, and Israel published results showing that producing odorous urine from asparagus was a common human characteristic. The Israeli study found that from their 307 subjects, all of those who could smell "asparagus urine" could detect it in the urine of anyone who had eaten asparagus, even if the person who produced it could not detect it.[64] A 2010 study[65] found variations in both production of odorous urine and the ability to detect the odor, but that these were not tightly related. Most people are thought to produce the odorous compounds after eating asparagus, but the differing abilities of various individuals to detect the odor at increasing dilutions suggests a genetically determined specific sensitivity.[66][67][68]

In 2010, the company 23andMe published a genome-wide association study on whether participants have "ever noticed a peculiar odor when [they] pee after eating asparagus".[69] This study pinpointed a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in a cluster of olfactory genes associated with the ability to detect the odor. While this SNP did not explain all of the difference in detection between people, it provides support for the theory that genetic differences occur in olfactory receptors that lead people to be unable to smell these odorous compounds.

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Food energy

Food energy

Food energy is chemical energy that animals derive from their food to sustain their metabolism, including their muscular activity.

Potassium

Potassium

Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K and atomic number 19. It is a silvery white metal that is soft enough to easily cut with a knife. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmospheric oxygen to form flaky white potassium peroxide in only seconds of exposure. It was first isolated from potash, the ashes of plants, from which its name derives. In the periodic table, potassium is one of the alkali metals, all of which have a single valence electron in the outer electron shell, which is easily removed to create an ion with a positive charge. In nature, potassium occurs only in ionic salts. Elemental potassium reacts vigorously with water, generating sufficient heat to ignite hydrogen emitted in the reaction, and burning with a lilac-colored flame. It is found dissolved in seawater, and occurs in many minerals such as orthoclase, a common constituent of granites and other igneous rocks.

Chromium

Chromium

Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal.

Amino acid

Amino acid

Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although over 500 amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the alpha-amino acids, which comprise proteins. Only 22 alpha amino acids appear in the genetic code.

Asparagine

Asparagine

Asparagine is an α-amino acid that is used in the biosynthesis of proteins. It contains an α-amino group, an α-carboxylic acid group, and a side chain carboxamide, classifying it as a polar, aliphatic amino acid. It is non-essential in humans, meaning the body can synthesize it. It is encoded by the codons AAU and AAC.

Cantonese cuisine

Cantonese cuisine

Cantonese or Guangdong cuisine, also known as Yue cuisine is the cuisine of Guangdong province of China, particularly the provincial capital Guangzhou, and the surrounding regions in the Pearl River Delta including Hong Kong and Macau. Strictly speaking, Cantonese cuisine is the cuisine of Guangzhou or of Cantonese speakers, but it often includes the cooking styles of all the speakers of Yue Chinese languages in Guangdong. Scholars categorize Guangdong cuisine into three major groups based on the region's dialect: Cantonese, Hakka and Chaozhou cuisines.

Chicken

Chicken

The chicken is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeast Asia. Rooster and cock are terms for adult male birds, and a younger male may be called a cockerel. A male that has been castrated is a capon. An adult female bird is called a hen, and a sexually immature female is called a pullet. Humans keep chickens primarily as a source of food or as pets. Traditionally they were also bred for cockfighting, which is still practiced in some places. Chickens domesticated for meat are broilers and for eggs are layers.

Beef

Beef

Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle.

Foodie

Foodie

A foodie is a person who has an ardent or refined interest in food, and who eats food not only out of hunger but also as a hobby. The related terms "gastronome" and "gourmet" define roughly the same thing, i.e. a person who enjoys food for pleasure; the connotation of "foodie" differs slightly—a sort of everyman with a love for food culture and different foods. Some, such as Paul Levy, say the foodie can still be a "foodist".

Midsummer

Midsummer

Midsummer is a celebration of the season of summer usually held at a date around the summer solstice. It has pagan pre-Christian roots in Europe.

Germany

Germany

Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second-most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between the Baltic and North seas to the north, and the Alps to the south; it covers an area of 357,022 square kilometres (137,847 sq mi), with a population of around 84 million within its 16 constituent states. Germany borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, and France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands to the west. The nation's capital and most populous city is Berlin and its main financial centre is Frankfurt; the largest urban area is the Ruhr.

Peru

Peru

Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pacific Ocean. Peru is a megadiverse country with habitats ranging from the arid plains of the Pacific coastal region in the west to the peaks of the Andes mountains extending from the north to the southeast of the country to the tropical Amazon basin rainforest in the east with the Amazon River. Peru has a population of over 32 million, and its capital and largest city is Lima. At 1,285,216 km2, Peru is the 19th largest country in the world, and the third largest in South America.

In culture

Asparagus has been used as a vegetable owing to its distinct flavor, and in medicine due to its diuretic properties and its purported function as an aphrodisiac. It is pictured as an offering on an Egyptian frieze dating to 3000 BC. In ancient times, it was also known in Syria and in the Iberian Peninsula. Greeks and Romans ate it fresh when in season, and dried the vegetable for use in winter. Emperor Augustus coined the expression "faster than cooking asparagus" for quick action.[Note 2][70][71]

A recipe for cooking asparagus is given in one of the oldest surviving collections of recipes (Apicius's 1st century AD De re coquinaria, Book III). In the second century AD, the Greek physician Galen, highly respected within Roman society, mentioned asparagus as a beneficial herb, but as dominance of the Roman empire waned, asparagus' medicinal value drew little attention[72][Note 1] until al-Nafzawi's The Perfumed Garden. That piece of writing celebrates its purported aphrodisiacal power that the Indian Ananga Ranga attributes to "special phosphorus elements" that also counteract fatigue.

By 1469, asparagus was cultivated in French monasteries. Asparagus appears to have been little noticed in England until 1538,[Note 1] and in Germany until 1542.[71]

Asparagus was brought to North America by European settlers at least as early as 1655. Adriaen van der Donck, a Dutch immigrant to New Netherland, mentions asparagus in his description of Dutch farming practices in the New World.[73] Asparagus was grown by British immigrants as well; in 1685, one of William Penn's advertisements for Pennsylvania included asparagus in a long list of crops that grew well in the American climate.[74]

The points d'amour ("love tips") were served as a delicacy to Madame de Pompadour (1721–1764).[75]

Celebrations

The green crop is significant enough in California's Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta region that the city of Stockton holds a festival every year to celebrate it. Oceana County, Michigan, the self-proclaimed "asparagus capital of the world" hosts an annual festival complete with a parade and asparagus queen;[76] The Vale of Evesham in Worcestershire is the largest producer within Northern Europe, celebrating with the annual British Asparagus Festival involving auctions of the best crop, an "Asparagus Run" modelled on the Beaujolais Run and a weekend "Asparafest" music festival.[77]

Many German cities hold an annual Spargelfest (asparagus festival) celebrating the harvest of white asparagus. Schwetzingen claims to be the "Asparagus Capital of the World",[78] and during its festival, an Asparagus Queen is crowned. The Bavarian city of Nuremberg feasts a week long in April, with a competition to find the fastest asparagus peeler in the region; this usually involves generous amounts of the local wines and beers being consumed to aid the spectators' appreciative support.

Helmut Zipner, who peeled a ton of asparagus in 16 hours, holds the world record in asparagus peeling.[78]

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Diuretic

Diuretic

A diuretic is any substance that promotes diuresis, the increased production of urine. This includes forced diuresis. A diuretic tablet is sometimes colloquially called a water tablet. There are several categories of diuretics. All diuretics increase the excretion of water from the body, through the kidneys. There exist several classes of diuretic, and each works in a distinct way. Alternatively, an antidiuretic, such as vasopressin, is an agent or drug which reduces the excretion of water in urine.

Aphrodisiac

Aphrodisiac

An aphrodisiac is a substance alleged to increase sexual desire, sexual attraction, sexual pleasure, or sexual behavior. Substances range from a variety of plants, spices, foods, and synthetic chemicals. Natural aphrodisiacs like cannabis or cocaine are classified into plant-based and non-plant-based substances. There are non-naturally occurring aphrodisiacs like MDMA and methamphetamine. Aphrodisiacs can be classified by their type of effects. Aphrodisiacs that contain hallucinogenic properties like Bufotenin have psychological effects on a person that can increase sexual desire and sexual pleasure. Aphrodisiacs that contain smooth muscle relaxing properties like yohimbine have physiological effects on a person that can affect hormone levels and increase blood flow.

Frieze

Frieze

In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon the architrave and is capped by the moldings of the cornice. A frieze can be found on many Greek and Roman buildings, the Parthenon Frieze being the most famous, and perhaps the most elaborate. This style is typical for the Persians.

Augustus

Augustus

Caesar Augustus, also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Principate, which is the first phase of the Roman Empire, and is considered one of the greatest leaders in human history. The reign of Augustus initiated an imperial cult as well as an era associated with imperial peace, the Pax Romana or Pax Augusta. The Roman world was largely free from large-scale conflict for more than two centuries despite continuous wars of imperial expansion on the empire's frontiers and the year-long civil war known as the "Year of the Four Emperors" over the imperial succession.

Apicius

Apicius

Apicius, also known as De re culinaria or De re coquinaria is a collection of Roman cookery recipes. It is thought to have been compiled in the fifth century AD. Its language is in many ways closer to Vulgar than to Classical Latin, with later recipes using Vulgar Latin added to earlier recipes using Classical Latin.

Galen

Galen

Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus, often Anglicized as Galen or Galen of Pergamon, was a Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher with Roman citizenship. Considered to be one of the most accomplished of all medical researchers of antiquity, Galen influenced the development of various scientific disciplines, including anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, and neurology, as well as philosophy and logic.

Ananga Ranga

Ananga Ranga

The Ananga Ranga or Kamaledhiplava is an Indian sex manual written by Kalyana malla in the 15th or 16th century. The poet wrote the work in honor of Lad Khan, son of Ahmed Khan Lodi. He was related to the Lodi dynasty, which from 1451 to 1526 ruled from Delhi. Later commentators have said it is aimed specifically at preventing the separation of a husband and wife. This work is often compared to the Kama Sutra, on which it draws.

Phosphorus

Phosphorus

Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Earth. It has a concentration in the Earth's crust of about one gram per kilogram. In minerals, phosphorus generally occurs as phosphate.

Madame de Pompadour

Madame de Pompadour

Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour, commonly known as Madame de Pompadour, was a member of the French court. She was the official chief mistress of King Louis XV from 1745 to 1751, and remained influential as court favourite until her death.

Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta

Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta

The Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, or California Delta, is an expansive inland river delta and estuary in Northern California. The Delta is formed at the western edge of the Central Valley by the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and lies just east of where the rivers enter Suisun Bay, which flows into San Francisco Bay, then the Pacific Ocean via San Pablo Bay. The Delta is recognized for protection by the California Bays and Estuaries Policy. Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta was designated a National Heritage Area on March 12, 2019. The city of Stockton is located on the San Joaquin River at the eastern edge of the delta. The total area of the Delta, including both land and water, is about 1,100 square miles (2,800 km2). Its population is around 500,000.

Oceana County, Michigan

Oceana County, Michigan

Oceana County is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 26,659. The county seat is Hart. Long known as part of the large Ojibwe territory, the county was founded by European Americans in 1840 and organized in 1855.

Nuremberg

Nuremberg

Nuremberg is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest city in Germany. On the Pegnitz River and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it lies in the Bavarian administrative region of Middle Franconia, and is the largest city and the unofficial capital of Franconia. Nuremberg forms with the neighbouring cities of Fürth, Erlangen and Schwabach a continuous conurbation with a total population of 800,376 (2019), which is the heart of the urban area region with around 1.4 million inhabitants, while the larger Nuremberg Metropolitan Region has approximately 3.6 million inhabitants. The city lies about 170 kilometres (110 mi) north of Munich. It is the largest city in the East Franconian dialect area.

Gallery

  • Wild asparagus sauteed with garlic, naam plaa, and soy sauce

    Wild asparagus sauteed with garlic, naam plaa, and soy sauce

  • In the Netherlands and northern Germany, asparagus is often eaten with ham, boiled egg, potatoes, and a melted butter sauce.

    In the Netherlands and northern Germany, asparagus is often eaten with ham, boiled egg, potatoes, and a melted butter sauce.

  • Three types of asparagus are on display, with white asparagus at the back and green asparagus in the middle. The plant at the front is Ornithogalum pyrenaicum, commonly called wild asparagus, and sometimes "Bath asparagus".

    Three types of asparagus are on display, with white asparagus at the back and green asparagus in the middle. The plant at the front is Ornithogalum pyrenaicum, commonly called wild asparagus, and sometimes "Bath asparagus".

  • Asparagus officinalis next to the Columbia River in East Wenatchee, Douglas County, Washington

    Asparagus officinalis next to the Columbia River in East Wenatchee, Douglas County, Washington

  • Asparagus served with bacon and rice

    Asparagus served with bacon and rice

  • Wild asparagus (Asparagus aphyllus) native to the Levant

    Wild asparagus (Asparagus aphyllus) native to the Levant

  • Asparagus in Mildura, Victoria, Australia

    Asparagus in Mildura, Victoria, Australia

  • Mature wild asparagus with seed pods in Saskatchewan, Canada

    Mature wild asparagus with seed pods in Saskatchewan, Canada

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Garlic

Garlic

Garlic is a species of bulbous flowering plant in the genus Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, Welsh onion and Chinese onion. It is native to South Asia, Central Asia and northeastern Iran and has long been used as a seasoning worldwide, with a history of several thousand years of human consumption and use. It was known to ancient Egyptians and has been used as both a food flavoring and a traditional medicine. China produces 76% of the world's supply of garlic.

Soy sauce

Soy sauce

Soy sauce is a liquid condiment of Chinese origin, traditionally made from a fermented paste of soybeans, roasted grain, brine, and Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae molds. It is considered to contain a strong umami taste.

Cream of asparagus soup

Cream of asparagus soup

Cream of asparagus soup is a soup prepared with asparagus, stock and milk or cream as primary ingredients.

Ornithogalum pyrenaicum

Ornithogalum pyrenaicum

Ornithogalum pyrenaicum, also called Prussian asparagus, wild asparagus, Bath asparagus, Pyrenees star of Bethlehem, or spiked star of Bethlehem, is a plant whose young flower shoots may be eaten as a vegetable, similar to asparagus.

Asparagus aphyllus

Asparagus aphyllus

Asparagus aphyllus is a species of plants in the family Asparagaceae. They are climbing plants. Flowers are visited by the Western honey bee, Syritta pipiens, Phthiria, and Halictus.

Levant

Levant

The Levant is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is equivalent to a stretch of land bordering the Mediterranean in southwestern Asia, i.e. the historical region of Syria, which includes present-day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and most of Turkey southwest of the middle Euphrates. Its overwhelming characteristic is that it represents the land bridge between Africa and Eurasia. In its widest historical sense, the Levant included all of the Eastern Mediterranean with its islands; that is, it included all of the countries along the Eastern Mediterranean shores, extending from Greece to Cyrenaica in eastern Libya.

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is a province in Western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota. Saskatchewan and Alberta are the only landlocked provinces of Canada. In 2022, Saskatchewan's population was estimated at 1,214,618. Nearly 10% of Saskatchewan’s total area of 651,900 square kilometres (251,700 sq mi) is fresh water, mostly rivers, reservoirs and lakes.

Source: "Asparagus", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, March 12th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asparagus.

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Further Reading

Celery

Lemon balm

Rosemary

Garlic

Onion

Asafoetida

Methanethiol

Beetroot

Scorzonera hispanica

Aroma compound

Trimethylaminuria

Yam (vegetable)

Urine

Puccinia asparagi

Odor

Allium ochotense
See also
Notes
  1. ^ a b c In the eleventh century AD the word "sparagus" appeared in an English text. See Brunning (June 2010), p. 6. – Brunning uses the term "in print", though no printing technique was used in England at the time. In the same sentence, she states that peasants often called it "sparrow grass", and further on mentions a 1667 diary in which Samuel Pepys bought a bundle of "sparrow grass" in Fenchurch Street, London.
  2. ^ Latin velocius quam asparagi conquantur (or celerius quam asparagi cocuntur), ascribed to Augustus by Suetonius (The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Book 2 (Augustus), para. 87). See List of Latin phrases (V).
References
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