Description

Caper bush, also called Flinders rose, is a perennial plant that bears rounded, fleshy leaves and large white to pinkish-white flowers. The plant is best known for the edible flower buds (capers), used as a seasoning, and the fruit (caper berries), both of which are usually consumed pickled. Other species of Capparis are also picked along with Capparis spinosa for their buds or fruits. Other parts of Capparis plants are used in the manufacture of medicines and cosmetics.

Characteristics:

Alpine Caper Bush is a spiny, trailing, deciduous shrub. Twigs are velvet-hairy. Stipular thorns usually recurved, rarely spreading or straight, up to 6 mm long. Leaf-stalks are grooved, 0.5-1.5 cm long. Leaf-blades are oblong, elliptic, elliptic-ovate or elliptic-obovate, velvet-hairy to densely white-woolly especially when young, later velvet-hairy to becoming hairless, 2-4.2 x 1.5-3.2 cm, base usually nearly flat or rounded, tip blunt or tapering, rounded or retuse, sometimes pointed, with a short sharp point or spiny with a short sharp point, with mucro usually more than 0.5 mm and up to 0.9 mm long. Flowers are zygomorphic; sepals 1.3-2.4 cm long. Petals are 1.8-2.8 cm long, broadly obovate or oblong. Stamens are numerous with filaments pinkish or purplish in the upper part, up to 5 cm long, and anthers violet, about 2 mm long. Fruits are ovoid or spheroid 1.8-4.2 cm long. Alpine Caper Bush is found on rocky slopes, foothills, cliffs, steppic plains, dried river-beds, wastelands, roadsides, walls, becoming a weed in cultivations; on clay, limestone and gypsum, often in substrata rich in soluble salts. It is found from the Mediterranean region eastwards to central Asia, India, Himalayas and Nepal, at altitudes of 0-3600 m. Flowering: March-September.

Medicinal Uses:

Capers have a long history of medicinal use. They are said to reduce flatulence and to be antirheumatic. In Ayurvedic medicine they are said to be hepatic stimulants and protectors, improving liver function - and these uses have been confirmed by modern research. Capers have reported uses for arteriosclerosis, as diuretics, kidney disinfectants, vermifuges and tonics. Infusions and decoctions from caper root bark have been traditionally used for dropsy, anaemia, arthritis and gout. Capers contain considerable amounts of the anti-oxidant bioflavonoid ruin.