Plants erect or climbing shrubs to 2m tall or long; branches glabrous, terete or grooved, smooth to lined with straight to curved spines 2-4 mm long; cladodes in clusters of 1-8, 5-20 mm long, subulate, stiff, sometimes absent in flowering or fruiting specimens. Inflorescences axillary, of 1-2 flowers; pedicels 4-5 mm long, articulated near the base. Tepals 2.5-3 mm long, white to purple; stamens shorter than tepals; ovaries with 1-2 ovules per cell; styles about 1 mm long, slender, 3-branched. Berries orange-red when mature, 5-7 mm in diamterm 1(-3)-seeded; seeds rounded, rugose.
Asparagus flagellaris grows in Acacia-Commiphora woodland, in shallow soils over limestone or on limestone outcrops at 230-430 m elevation. It grows in Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia (region S1), Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and westwards to West Africa.