Asparagus is an herbaceous, perennial plant[3] growing to 100–150 centimetres (3–5 feet) tall, with stout stems with much-branched, feathery foliage.

The 'leaves' are 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 in fours, up to 15, together, in a rose-like shape.

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.

[5] Plants native to the western coasts of Europe (from northern Spain to northwest Germany, north Ireland, and Great Britain) are treated as A. officinalis subsp.

Genetic research currently places lilies, Allium, and asparagus in three separate families: the Liliaceae, Amaryllidaceae, and Asparagaceae, respectively.

[11] Sources differ as to the plant's native range, but generally include most of Europe and western temperate Asia.

Some regions and gardening zones are better-suited for growing asparagus than others, such as the west coast of North America and other more maritime, “Mediterranean” environments.

[15] A breed of "early-season asparagus" that can be harvested two months earlier than usual was announced by a UK grower in early 2011.

Purple asparagus differs from its green and white counterparts in having high sugar and low fibre levels.

[28] The shoots are prepared and served in a number of ways around the world, typically as an appetizer[29] or vegetable side dish.

[7] 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.

[33][34] As in continental Europe, due to the short growing season and demand for local produce, asparagus commands a premium price.

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.

[44] Tall, narrow asparagus cooking pots allow the shoots to be steamed gently, their tips staying out of the water.

[45] 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.

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.

That piece of writing celebrates its purported aphrodisiacal power that the Indian Ananga Ranga attributes to "special phosphorus elements" that also counteract fatigue.

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.

[58] Certain compounds in asparagus are metabolized to yield ammonia and various sulfur-containing degradation products, including various thiols and thioesters,[59] which following consumption give urine a characteristic smell.

[67] 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.

In the 1980s, three studies from France,[71] China, and Israel published results showing that producing odorous urine from asparagus was a common human characteristic.

[74][75][76] 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".

[77] This study pinpointed a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in a cluster of olfactory genes associated with the ability to detect the odor.

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.

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.