Capparis cynophallophora L.

  • Authority

    Britton, Nathaniel L. & Millspaugh, Charles F. 1920. The Bahama Flora.

  • Family

    Capparaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Capparis cynophallophora L.

  • Description

    Species Description - A shrub or a tree up to about 15 m. high, with a trunk diameter reaching 2 or 3 dm., the bark brown, furrowed, the slender, angular twigs densely scaly. Leaves elliptic or oblong, coriaceous, 4-12 cm. long, 2-6 cm. wide, or those of shoots narrowly linear, sometimes 3 dm. long and only 5-10 mm. wide, acute obtuse or emarginate at the apex, narrowed at the base, glabrous and shining above, densely silvery-scaly and with the lateral venation obsolete beneath, the scaly petioles 1-3 cm. long; corymbs few-several-flowered; pedicels stout, scaly, 0.5-3 cm. long; flowers fragrant; flower-bud 4-angled; sepals distinct, valvate, 8-12 mm. long, densely scaly, reflexed, nearly as long as the white petals; stamens numerous, purplish, 2-3 times as long as the petals, the anthers yellow; fruit narrowly linear, torulose, drooping, 8 cm.-4 dm. long, 6-8 mm. thick, irregularly rupturing, scarcely fleshy, often much longer than the gynophore.

  • Distribution

    Scrub-lands and thickets, Andros, Long Island, Cat Island, Watling's, Atwood Cay, Acklin's, Fortune, Crooked, Mariguana, Caicos and Inagua : Florida ; Cuba to Tortola and Barbadoes ; Jamaica. Black Willow.

    Andros Island Bahamas South America| Long Island Bahamas South America| Cat Island Bahamas South America| Acklins Bahamas South America| Crooked Island Bahamas South America| Turks and Caicos Islands South America| Inagua Bahamas South America| Florida United States of America North America| Cuba South America| Tortola Virgin Islands South America| Barbados South America| Jamaica South America|