Highly visible white and greyish deposits appeared on commercially pickled green asparagus spears after 6 mo storage. Microscopic examination revealed that the deposits consisted mainly of needle shaped crystals. Rutin (quercetin-3-0-rhamnoglucoside), present in asparagus in appreciable quantities (0.02 to 0.1%) was suspected of being responsible for the deposits. The deposits were chromatographed with authentic rutin using HPLC. Retention and spectral data confirmed that the major component of the deposits was rutin.