''Asphodeline lutea'' (king's spear, yellow asphodel) is a

perennial plant A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

native to southeastern

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, northern

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, the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

and the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...

.Kew Plants of the World Online
/ref> It is grown as a landscaping plant. It has been associated with the Asphodel of the

underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

,Robert Graves. The Common Asphodel 1949
/ref> but see also the closely related ''

Asphodelus ramosus ''Asphodelus ramosus'', the branched asphodel, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the order Asparagales. Similar in appearance to ''Asphodelus albus'' and particularly '' Asphodelus cerasiferus'' and '' Asphodelus aestivus'', it may be distingui ...

''.

Description

''Asphodeline lutea'' reaches tall and wide. The grey-green leaves are tall, with the flower stalk growing bearing a dense raceme of bright yellow flowers.

History

''Asphodeline lutea'' was introduced into the

University of Oxford Botanic Garden The University of Oxford Botanic Garden is the oldest botanic garden in Great Britain and one of the oldest scientific gardens in the world. The garden was founded in 1621 as a physic garden growing plants for medicinal research. Today it conta ...

in 1648, even though it demonstrated no known uses that are typical of a

physic garden A physic garden is a type of herb garden with medicinal plants. Botanical gardens developed from them. History Modern botanical gardens were preceded by medieval physic gardens, often monastic gardens, that existed by 800 at least. Gardens of ...

(plants grown for medicinal use). One of the curators of the garden at the time, John Parkinson, said the plant was "not... used in Physicke for any purpose." The locals in the Mediterranean who were interviewed by Parkinson said that that plant had "no... propertie appropriate unto it but knavery," with no explanation of the particular knavery of which the plant was guilty. The description in the Botanic Garden used the old name of ''Asphodelus lutea''.

References

External links

Kew Plants of the World OnlineIPNI Listing
Asphodeloideae Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Garden plants {{Asphodelaceae-stub