When I first saw 34v, late in 2007, I thought it might be Venus flytrap [image credit Mcadoo], but there are several problems with this ID... the leaf stalks are wrong, the roots are wrong, the fuzzy base of the stalk is not nearly so prominent on Venus flytrap, the stalks for the flowers are wrong, and I couldn't think of any Venus flytrap relevance for the "mating" roots. Also, Venus flytrap is a New World plant. I wasn't discounting New World plants, but so many things were "not right", that I put Venus flytrap aside to look for other possibilities.
Asparagus as long branches, flowers, a fuzzy stem stalk, and roots that are long, thickly matted and stringy. The berries are green in spring and red in September. There are male and female plants growing in close proximity.
Now look at the image of asparagus below as it would look around June or July before all the berries have ripened. If you were only an average artist, and knew that the only useful part of the ferny form of this plant was the seeds inside the berries, how would you draw it? would you bother with all the fuzzy leaves that are hard to draw that would obscure the part of the plant that is used (the seeds inside the berries)? You could easily recognize the plant based on the flowers, the berries, the stem base, and the root mnemonic (indicating a dioecious plant):
![[Image: 34vDetail.png]](http://voynichportal.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/34vDetail.png)
I'm not insisting that 34v is asparagus but I think it's a possibility, and morphologically and mnemonically it's more defendable than Venus flytrap or some of the other IDs I've seen on people's blogs, so I wanted to get the idea out for consideration because many people are not familiar with asparagus berries, or the dioecious nature of the plant, and thus might overlook it.
Asparagus as long branches, flowers, a fuzzy stem stalk, and roots that are long, thickly matted and stringy. The berries are green in spring and red in September. There are male and female plants growing in close proximity.
Now look at the image of asparagus below as it would look around June or July before all the berries have ripened. If you were only an average artist, and knew that the only useful part of the ferny form of this plant was the seeds inside the berries, how would you draw it? would you bother with all the fuzzy leaves that are hard to draw that would obscure the part of the plant that is used (the seeds inside the berries)? You could easily recognize the plant based on the flowers, the berries, the stem base, and the root mnemonic (indicating a dioecious plant):
I'm not insisting that 34v is asparagus but I think it's a possibility, and morphologically and mnemonically it's more defendable than Venus flytrap or some of the other IDs I've seen on people's blogs, so I wanted to get the idea out for consideration because many people are not familiar with asparagus berries, or the dioecious nature of the plant, and thus might overlook it.