Cliff hanger

The asparagus season has recently ended for northern hemisphere crops. Tradition has it that, at the summer solstice, growers stop cutting spears to allow the plant to grow and produce enough resources to generate spears for the next spring’s crop. The plant is becoming increasingly fashionable and production is increasing to meet demand. But the cultivated asparagus has a wild relative that is of increasing conservation concern, not least because it may harbour valuable genetic insights into the farmed plant, but also because of its increasing rarity. Indeed, there has been some debate whether the commercial variety is actually derived from the wild asparagus. Although differences between wild asparagus (Asparagus prostrates) and the cultivated form (Asparagus officinalis) have been known for many years, wild asparagus has been often treated through time and across its range as either a variety or subspecies of Feature