Capparis sepiariaL.

WFO wfo-0000585113 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Capparis sepiaria, photographed by Shaun Swanepoel
fig. a Shaun Swanepoel, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-29 / obs. 191824917
Capparis sepiaria, photographed by Andrew Gillespie
fig. b Andrew Gillespie, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 176915124
Capparis sepiaria, photographed by Ramesh Shenai Jr.
fig. c Ramesh Shenai Jr., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 177669625
Capparis sepiaria, photographed by douglaseustonbrown
fig. d douglaseustonbrown, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 62675466
Capparis sepiaria, photographed by Hopeland
fig. e Hopeland, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 119643390
Capparis sepiaria, photographed by douglaseustonbrown
fig. f douglaseustonbrown, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 45304374
Capparis sepiaria, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. g Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 138156211
Capparis sepiaria, photographed by Andrew Gillespie
fig. h Andrew Gillespie, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 17568231

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 49 botanical countries

Regions where Capparis sepiaria is native: Angola, Benin, Burkina, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Chad, DR Congo, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, China Southeast, Hainan, Andaman Is., Bangladesh, Borneo, Cambodia, India, Jawa, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Myanmar, New Guinea, Nicobar Is., Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Thailand, Vietnam, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia AngolaBeninBurkinaBurundiCameroonCape ProvincesChadDR CongoEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMalawiMaliMauritaniaMozambiqueNorthern ProvincesRwandaSenegalSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZambiaZimbabweChina SoutheastHainanBangladeshBorneoCambodiaIndiaJawaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMalukuMyanmarNew GuineaPhilippinesSri LankaSulawesiThailandVietnamNorthern TerritoryQueenslandWestern Australia Andaman Is.Nicobar Is.
Native distribution of Capparis sepiaria, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Burkina BKN
Burundi BUR
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
Chad CHA
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Malawi MLW
Mali MLI
Mauritania MTN
Mozambique MOZ
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Senegal SEN
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Andaman Is. AND ASIA-TROPICAL
Bangladesh BAN
Borneo BOR
Cambodia CBD
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laos LAO
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
New Guinea NWG
Nicobar Is. NCB
Philippines PHI
Sri Lanka SRL
Sulawesi SUL
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
Northern Territory NTA AUSTRALASIA
Queensland QLD
Western Australia WAU
China Southeast CHS ASIA-TEMPERATE
Hainan CHH

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 90 in flower of 160 examined

Peak flowering in Sep. Each bar is the share of Capparis sepiaria observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 90 of 160 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. One month has fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for it. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 34 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Capparis affinis Merr.
  • Capparis boscioides Pax
  • Capparis capensis Thunb.
  • Capparis cerasiflora Gilg
  • Capparis chionantha Gilg & Gilg-Ben.
  • Capparis citrifolia Lam.
  • Capparis corymbosa var. sansibarensis Pax
  • Capparis corymbosa var. subglabra Oliv.
  • Capparis djurica Gilg & Gilg-Ben.
  • Capparis emarginata C.Presl
  • Capparis emarginata Zipp. ex Span.
  • Capparis fischeri Pax
  • Capparis flexicaulis Hance
  • Capparis glauca Wall. ex Hook.f. & Thomson
  • Capparis glauca var. angustifolia Collett & Hemsl.
  • Capparis laurifolia Gilg & Gilg-Ben.
  • Capparis mildbraedii Gilg
  • Capparis mildbraedii var. roseiflora (Gilg & Gilg-Ben.) Haumann
  • Capparis retusella Thwaites
  • Capparis rivae Gilg
  • Capparis roseiflora Gilg & Gilg-Ben.
  • Capparis sansibarensis (Pax) Gilg
  • Capparis sepiaria var. glabrata DC.
  • Capparis sepiaria var. retusella (Thwaites) Thwaites

and 10 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.