Asphodel (Asphodelus), a genus of perennial herbs belonging to the order Liliaceæ. The roots are fleshy and fasciculated, the leaves linear, and the flowers are arranged in long racemes, often compound, and continue flowering during great part of winter and early spring in their native country, covering, for instance, the bleakest hillsides in Greece with enduring blossom, whence probably their association in Greek mythology, and thence throughout poetry, with the Elysian fields. The species are not very numerous, and are mostly natives of the countries around the Mediterranean Sea. The Yellow Asphodel or King's Spear (A. luteus) and the White Asphodel (A. albus) have long been known in Britain as garden- flowers. The yellow asphodel has an unbranched stem 2-3 feet high, much covered by the sheathing bases of the long narrow leaves. The leaves of the white asphodel are all radical, and its flowers are in branched clusters.