How Are Male & Female Asparagus Plants Different? | Gardener's Path

What’s the Difference Between Male and Female Asparagus Plants?

In my book, asparagus (Asparagus officinalis) is king of the edible perennial garden.

Producing tender spears early in spring, this veggie makes for delicious seasonal meals – and a sensational start to the year’s growing season.

Unlike some garden vegetables such as peas, which are self-pollinating, asparagus is dioecious, meaning some plants are male and some are female.

To reproduce, a honeybee or some other pollinator has to visit the flowers of both male and female plants.

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Since the differences in gender are meaningful when it comes to your yearly harvest tally, recognizing the gender of these plants can be a helpful gardening skill.

Are you ready to add this knowledge to your gardening toolkit? Good – I hear your resounding “Yes!”

But before we get started, here’s a quick overview of what I’ll cover:

Gender Similarities in Asparagus

I realize you are eager to learn how to look at an asparagus plant and tell its gender.

But before we go there, let’s start by examining the ways in which the two genders are indistinguishable:

Both produce edible shoots or spears that grow from underground roots commonly called “crowns.” Spears from both genders grow into wispy, frond-like stems called “ferns” that can reach up to 7 feet tall. From these fronds, both genders produce small greenish white or yellow flowers. Gender Differences in Asparagus

So, the gender of asparagus plants is pretty hard to distinguish up to this point – at least from a human point of view.

But we’re starting at the flowering stage, which means reproduction. This is where things tend to get

flowers plants gardening berries seeds greening asparagus Kristina HicksHamblin