Asparagus officinalis
     Garden asparagus / 芦笋

Taxonomy: Angiosperms / Monocots / Asparagales / Asparagaceae

Introduction

1. Asparagus officinalis, is a spring vegetable, a flowering perennial plant species in the genus Asparagus.
2. Sources differ as to the native range of Asparagus officinalis, but generally include most of Europe and western temperate Asia.
3. Asparagus is a herbaceous, perennial plant growing to 100-150 cm (39-59 in) tall, with stout stems with much-branched.
4. Only young Asparagus shoots are commonly eaten: once the buds start to open ("ferning out"), the shoots quickly turn woody.
5. Water makes up 93% of asparagus's composition. Asparagus is low in calories and is very low in sodium.

Genome statistics

VarietyN.A.
Total sequence length1,187,538,024 bp
Total assembly gap length35,521,464 bp
Number of scaffolds11,792
Scaffold N50131,339,754 bp
Scaffold L505 bp
Number of contigs56,182
Contig N5046,553 bp
Contig L507,625 bp
Chromosome number2n=20
Number of component sequences (WGS or clone)56,182
Sequencing technologyIllumina, 454

Reference

Harkess, A. et al. The asparagus genome sheds light on the origin and evolution of a young y chromosome. Nat. Commun. 8, 1279 (2017)