Shatavari has small pine-needle-like phylloclades (photosynthetic branches) that are uniform and shiny green. It has shiny green leaf-like structures (phylloclades) which are flattened stems rather than true leaves. The leaves are reduced to non-photosynthetic scales, with the phylloclades in their axils. The phylloclades are remarkable for their ability to produce bulblets. Most species have photosynthetic flattened stems, called phylloclades, instead of true leaves. The "leaves" of this species are actually leaf-stem combinations called phylloclades. A plant's upper phylloclades may grow large, causing its main stalk to bend downward. By this definition, some of the most leaf-like structures are cladodes, rather than phylloclades. Phylloclades/cladodes have been identified in fossils dating from as early as the Permian. Phylloclades also occur in "Bryophyllum" and "Kalanchoe". By that definition, "Phyllanthus" has phylloclades, but "Ruscus" and "Asparagus" have cladodes.