Capparis arborea
(F. Muell.) Maiden
Bush caper berry
(c) Heather Knowles, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Heather Knowles
(c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), uploaded by Greg Tasney
(c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), uploaded by Greg Tasney
What to Eat
Edible parts: Fruit
The ripe fruit are eaten fresh and are sweet. The fresh seeds can be extracted from soaked fruit for propagation.
Where to Find It
A tropical plant. It grows in coastal rainforests in Queensland and New South Wales in Australia. It does best with a well drained acid soil and a sunny position. It is resistant to drought and damaged by frost. It suits hardiness zones 9-12.
Australia*,
How to Identify
An evergreen scrambling shrub. It can be 2-5 m tall. It can grow to 8 m tall. It has a thick woody trunk at the base. The stems have sharp prickles. The leaves are oval and dark green. They are 6-15 cm long by 2-6 cm wide. Flowers are white or cream. They are 3-6 cm across. The flower buds are covered with woolly hairs., The fruit is a berry. It is round and yellow and 5 cm across. The fruit is edible.
How to Grow
Plants can be grown from seed or stem cuttings. The fruit are soaked in warm water and the flesh sieved out from the seeds. The fresh seeds are then sown. Cuttings also strike easily.
Wikipedia
Source ↗Capparis arborea is a bush or small tree occurring in eastern Australia. Its habitat is rainforest, usually riverine, littoral or the drier rainforests. It is distributed from the Hunter River, New South Wales to Cape Melville in tropical Queensland. Common names include native pomegranate, wild lime, wild lemon and brush caper berry. Capparis arborea is a host plant for the caper white (Belenois java), which migrate across the eastern seaboard in large numbers in the summer. It also feeds the chalky white (Elodina parthia)
Notes
There are about 250 Capparis species. There are about 50 Capparis species in tropical America.
Names & Synonyms
Brush caper berry, Karum, Native pomegranate, Noble Caper, Woody caper
References (23)
- Bodkin, F., 1991, Encyclopedia Botanica. Cornstalk publishing, p 211
- Cherikoff V. & Isaacs, J., The Bush Food Handbook. How to gather, grow, process and cook Australian Wild Foods. Ti Tree Press, Australia p 194
- Cooper, W. and Cooper, W., 2004, Fruits of the Australian Tropical Rainforest. Nokomis Editions, Victoria, Australia. p 109
- Cundall, P., (ed.), 2004, Gardening Australia: flora: the gardener's bible. ABC Books. p 326
- Elliot, W.R., & Jones, D.L., 1982, Encyclopedia of Australian Plants suitable for cultivation. Vol 2. Lothian. p 458
- Etherington, K., & Imwold, D., (Eds), 2001, Botanica's Trees & Shrubs. The illustrated A-Z of over 8500 trees and shrubs. Random House, Australia. p 179
- Flora of Australia, Volume 8, Lecythidales to Batales, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra (1982) p 215
- Hibbert, M., 2002, The Aussie Plant Finder 2002, Florilegium. p 59
- Hiddins, L., 1999, Explore Wild Australia with the Bush Tucker Man. Penguin Books/ABC Books. p 155
- Hinton, B & B., 1982, A Wilderness in Bloom. Wildflowers of tropical Australia. p 47
- Jones D, L, 1986, Ornamental Rainforest Plants in Australia, Reed Books, p 203
- Lazarides, M. & Hince, B., 1993, Handbook of Economic Plants of Australia, CSIRO. p 47
- Leiper, G & Houser, J., Mutooroo. Plant Use by Australian Aboriginal People. Assembly press, Queensland.
- Maiden, J. H., 1889, The Useful Native Plants of Australia (including Tasmania). The Technology Museum of NSW, Sydney. p 13 (As Capparis nobilis)
- Melzer, R. & Plumb, J., 2011, Plants of Capricornia. Belgamba, Rockhampton. p 87
- Nicholson, N & H., 1996, Australian Rainforest Plants 2, Terania Rainforest Publishing. NSW. p 16
- Recher, P, 2001, Fruit Spirit Botanical Gardens Plant Index. www.nrg.com.au/~recher/ seedlist.html p 1
- Ryan, M. (Ed.), 2003, Wild Plants of Greater Brisbane. Queensland Museum. p 251
- Townsend, K., 1994, Across the Top. Gardening with Australian Plants in the tropics. Society for Growing Australian Plants, Townsville Branch Inc. p 120
- Williams, J.B., Harden, G.J., and McDonald, W.J.F., 1984, Trees and shrubs in rainforests of New South Wales and Southern Queensland. Univ. of New England, Armidale. p 59
- www.theplantlist.org
- Yallakool Reserve Plant List July 1, 2009 Off internet
- Young, P.A.R., 1991, Rainforest Guide. Brisbane Forest Park. p 21
