Common name: Wild Caper Bush, • Hindi: Kanthari • Telugu: Nallavuppi • Tamil: கரிந்து Karindu • Marathi: Kantharyel • Oriya: Otaibe • Kannada: Ippi • Gujarati: Kalokantharo • Bengali: Kaliakara • Sanskrit: Kanthari, ग्र्ध्रनखी Grdhranakhi
Botanical name: Capparis sepiaria Family: Capparaceae (caper family)
Spreading or climbing, much branched shrub, 3-4 m long, more or less
pubescent with ashy grey simple hairs. Leaves elliptic oblong to ovate or
suborbicular, 1.5-4 cm long, 1-2 cm broad, often retuse, softly
pubescent to glabrous; petiole 2-5 mm long, pubescent; stipular spines 2-5 mm,
hooked, often brown-black. Flowers usually in corymbose terminal clusters of
10-30, small, 5-10 mm across, white; pedicels 1-2 cm long, not thickened in
fruit, pubescent. Sepals 3-6 mm long, 2.5-3.5 mm broad, subequal. Petals
oblong-spathulate, 3.5-8 mm long, 2-3 mm broad, more or less hairy at the
base. Stamens many, 5-10 mm long. Gynophore 6-10 mm long, slightly
thickened in fruit. Fruit globose, 8-12 mm in diam., crustaceous, dark-brown,
smooth, 1-2 seeded; seed about 6 mm.
Distribution: India, Ceylon, E. Pakistan, Malesia, Indochina, China, Australia
and tropical Africa.
| Photographed in Garden of Five Senses, Delhi. |
Identification credit: Navendu Pagé
|
ative