Capparis spinosa Linnaeus (1753: 503)

Fici, Silvio, 2015, A taxonomic revision of the Capparis spinosa group (Capparaceae) from eastern Africa to Oceania, Phytotaxa 203 (1), pp. 24-36 : 24-25

Capparis spinosa Linnaeus (1753: 503) .

Lectotype (designated by Burtt & Lewis 1949): “ Habitat in Europae australis arenosis, ruderatis” Herb. Clifford: 203, Capparis I ( BM).

Prostrate, erect or pendulous shrubs, with branches unramified to multiramified, up to 4 m long; young twigs glabrous, pubescent or white–tomentose. Stipules thorny or setaceous, straight or recurved, up to 6 mm long, yellowish or orange, in some cases wanting or caducous. Leaves alternate with blade orbicular, suborbicular, ovate, obovate, lanceolate or elliptic, glabrous or pubescent, up to 8 cm long and 7 cm wide, chartaceous to coriaceous or succulent, rounded, cordate, subcordate, truncate, obtuse, acute, attenuate or cuneate at base, rounded, acute, obtuse, acuminate, truncate, retuse or emarginate at apex, more or less distinctly mucronate; petiole entire or sulcate, up to 4 cm long, glabrous or pubescent. Flowers solitary, axillary in the upper part of twigs, more or less zygomorphic, mostly noctiflorous; pedicels up to 12 cm long, glabrous to pubescent. Calyx with 4 sepals, oblong or ovate, glabrous or pubescent outside, the posterior one slightly to strongly saccate, up to 4.5 cm long, other sepals up to 3 cm long. Petals 4, white or whitepinkish, upper pair connate, lower pair free, obovate, obdeltoid, rhombic, oblong or rounded–ovate, up to 6 cm long. Stamens numerous, up to c. 200, with filaments up to 7 cm long. Gynophore up to 8 cm long, sometimes hairy at base; ovary ovoid, obovoid, ellipsoid or cylindrical, up to 8 mm long. Fruit ellipsoid, ovoid, obovoid, pyriform, oblong or globose, up to 9 × 4 cm, with pericarp smooth or ribbed; seeds numerous, reniform, 2–4 mm long.

Distribution:— Southern Europe, northern and eastern Africa, Madagascar, south–western and central Asia, Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia and Oceania.

Notes:— According to Jacobs (1965), in the present treatment a single species, Capparis spinosa , is recognized within Capparis Linnaeus (1753: 503) sect. Capparis . For the latter Author this polymorphic species embraces all the “related species” formerly described. Its variants in the holoarctic and paleotropical regions share primitive features as simple hairs, solitary flowers in the leaf axils and large ovary with several carpels (Fici 2004), showing differential characters in the habit, twigs, stipules, leaf, gynophore and fruit. Based on their geographical differentiation, the variants of C. spinosa are here treated at subspecific rank. The species concept adopted follows the one proposed for the group in other areas by Maire (1965) Higton & Akeroyd (1991) and Fici (2014).

The four subspecies here recognized correspond to the varieties of C. spinosa recorded by Jacobs (1965) in the Indo-Pacific area. These taxa show separate distributions, with some exceptions in contact zones of Middle East and north-western Himalaya. Two other subspecies, i.e. subsp. spinosa and subsp. rupestris (Sm.) Nyman (1878: 68) , are widespread in holoarctic regions of the Old World ( Higton & Akeroyd 1993, Marcos Samaniego & Paiva 1993, Gristina et al. 2014).