230 Handbook of herbs and spices
13.1 Introduction: brief description
The caper bush (Capparis spinosa L., Capparidaceae) is a winter-deciduous species
widespread in Mediterranean Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. Its young flower
buds, known as capers, are greatly favoured for food seasoning and different parts of
the plant are used in the manufacture of medicines and cosmetics (Sozzi, 2001;
Rivera et al., 2003). This drought-tolerant perennial plant has a favourable influence
on the environment and it is utilized for landscaping and reducing erosion along
highways, steep rocky slopes, sand dunes or fragile semiarid ecosystems (Lozano
Puche, 1977). The caper plant has low flammability and may play a role in cutting
down forest fires (Neyişçi, 1987). It favours rural economies in marginal lands in
many circum-Mediterranean countries and neighbouring regions: Turkey, Morocco,
southeastern Spain, Italy (especially the Mediterranean island of Pantelleria, the
Aeolian island of Salina, and Sicily), Tunisia, France (Provence), Greece, Algeria,
Egypt, Asia Minor, Cyprus and the Levant. Whether indigenous to this region or not
is still unknown (Zohary, 1960). Considerable genetic variation for the caper bush
and its relatives exists, mainly in dry regions in west or central Asia. The genus
Capparis could be of a subtropical or tropical origin and only naturalized in the
Mediterranean basin (Pugnaire, 1989).
The caper bush is a perennial shrub 30 to 50 cm tall. Its roots can be six to ten
metres long (Reche Mármol, 1967; González Soler, 1973; Luna Lorente and Pérez
Vicente, 1985; Bounous and Barone, 1989). The root system may account for 65% of
the total biomass (Singh et al., 1992). Caper canopy is made up of four to six radial
decumbent branches from which many secondary stems grow. In wild bushes, Singh
et al. (1992) observed up to 47 branches per plant. Branches are usually from two to
three metres long. Stipular pale yellowish spines are often hooked and divaricate but
sometimes weakly developed or absent. Leaves are alternate, two to five centimetres
long, simple, ovate to elliptic, thick and glistening, with a rounded base and a mucronate,
obtuse or emarginate apex. Flower bud appearance is continuous so that all transitional
stages of development, from buds to fruit, can be observed simultaneously. The first
ten nodes from the base are usually sterile and the following ten only partially fertile;
13 Capers and caperberries.........................................................................
G. O. Sozzi,^ Universidad de Buenos Aires and CONICET, Argentina and
A. R. Vicente, CONICET–UNLP, Argentina