''Capparis arborea'' is a bush or small tree occurring in eastern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The habitat is

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

; usually riverine, littoral or the drier rainforests. Distributed from the

Hunter River, New South Wales The Hunter River (Wonnarua: ''Coquun'') is a major river in New South Wales, Australia. The Hunter River rises in the Liverpool Range and flows generally south and then east, reaching the Tasman Sea at Newcastle, the second largest city in New S ...

to Cape Melville in tropical Queensland. Common names include native pomegranate, wild lime, wild lemon and brush caper berry.

Description

Up to 8 metres tall with a stem diameter of 25 cm, but usually seen much smaller. The trunk is crooked, short and irregular in appearance. Many sharp prickles grow on younger plants. Grey bark, with less sharp spines in older trees. Small branches fairly thick, dark grey though more green at the end. Leaves alternate on the stem, simple, oblong-lanceolate in shape. Sometimes ovate oblong in shape. 5 to 10 cm long, 1.5 to 5 cm wide. Mostly rounded at the tip, although some leaves pointed at the tip. Juvenile leaves smaller than adult leaves with a prickly pointed leaf tip. Leaf veins visible on both surfaces. The midrib is raised under the leaf, but sunken on the top of the leaf.

Flowers and fruit

Single white flowers form from the leaf

axil A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, st ...

s, around 4 cm in diameter. The attractive open wiry flowers form from January to March. Petals 15 mm long, fringed at the edges. The thin flower stalks are 30 to 50 mm long. From December to March, a fruit resembling a

guava Guava () is a common tropical fruit cultivated in many tropical and subtropical regions. The common guava ''Psidium guajava'' (lemon guava, apple guava) is a small tree in the myrtle family ( Myrtaceae), native to Mexico, Central America, the ...

forms. Green, smooth and soft, globular in shape. Around 2.5 to 6 cm in diameter. Fruit stalks 3 to 5 cm long. The seeds are round and flattened, 8 to 10 mm in diameter. The ripe fruit are yellow, with the pulp surrounding the seeds being edible, and were a source of food for Aboriginal people. Germination from fresh seed is not particularly difficult, with the first seeds germinating after three weeks. Image:Capparis arborea RBG Sydney.jpg, prickly trunk of ''Capparis arborea''

References

* Hiddins, L., ''Bush Tucker Field Guide'', Explore Australia Publishing 2003, p. 95 * * * Queensland Museum, ''Wild Plants of Greater Brisbane'', Queensland Museum 2003, p. 251 {{Taxonbar, from=Q5036113

arborea Arborea is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Oristano, Sardinia, Italy, whose economy is largely based on agriculture and cattle breeding with production of vegetables, rice, fruit and milk (notably the local milk product Arborea). Histo ...

Flora of Queensland Flora of New South Wales Trees of Australia Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller