Asparagus Trivia | 30 facts about the green vegetable

The asparagus is a plant, that when cropped is used for cooking tasty, and really healthy dishes all over the world.

Let’s find out more about the asparagus!

1. Asparagus is also called garden asparagus.
2. Its folk name is sparrow grass.
3. Its scientific name is Asparagus officinalis.
4. The asparagus is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus Asparagus.
5. Its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable.
6. It was once classified in the lily family like the related Allium species, onions and garlic.
7. However, genetic research places lilies, Allium, and asparagus in three separate familiesthe Liliaceae, Amaryllidaceae, and Asparagaceae, respectively.
8. Sources differ as to the native range of Asparagus officinalis.
9. Asparagus generally include most of Europe and western temperate Asia.
10. It is widely cultivated as a vegetable crop.
11. Asparagus has been cultivated for 2,500 years and for almost 150 years in the United States.
12. White asparagus and green asparagus come from the same plant.
13. Green asparagus gets its color from sunlight.
14. When the plant breaks through the ground, the sun hits it, turning it green. For white asparagus, sunlight is prevented from touching the plant by piling dirt on top of the stalks so the asparagus matures underground. Once the tip breaks through the surface, the stalk is cut with a special knife beneath the ground.
15. Green asparagus tends to have higher levels of nutrients, such as protein, as well as ascorbic acid, calcium, thiamin, and niacin.
16. White asparagus generally has lower antioxidant content than green spears.
17. Before harvesting, asparagus spends up to three years in the ground!
18. Asparagus plants can be cropped each spring for 15 years or more.
19. The spears though start out the diameter of pencil lead in year one.
20. The mini-spears eventually grow into a ferny, waist-high canopy which feeds the underground rhizomes with energy synthesized from the sun.
21. The plants gain strength in year two and by the following spring, some of the spears are reaching the full diameter of a pencil, signaling they’re ready to harvest.
22. Chickens can help farm asparagus.
23. Though productivity has slowed in recent years, at last count there were still 57,000 hectares of asparagus in China.
24. After China, Peru has 27,000 hectares in production, while Germany is close behind with 22,000.
25. The United States ranks fifth with about 14,400 hectares, virtually all of which is in California, Washington and Michigan.
26. Only young asparagus shoots are commonly eaten: Once the buds start to open (“ferning out”), the shoots quickly turn woody.
27. Water makes up 93% of asparagus’s composition.
28. Oceana County, Michigan is the self-proclaimed asparagus capital of the world.
29. The county hosts the National Asparagus Festival in June each year to celebrate the harvest.
30. White asparagus is not genetically induced in any way.