Capparis spinosa

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Family Capparaceae

Taxonomy: Capparis spinosa L.

Synonyms: none listed in the APC 2026-07-30

Distribution (APC): WA, NT, Qld

Profiles: APC, Flora of Australia, ALA, iNaturalist, NT eFlora, Florabase, ATRP

Traits

Top source datasets: Collette_2021 (1), Draper_2023 (3), Kew_2019_1 (16), Kew_2019_2 (2), Kew_2019_4 (3), Kew_2019_6 (3), NTH_2022 (4), NTH_2023 (7), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Stephens_2023 (1), Sweedman_2006 (1), WAH_1998 (1), WAH_2022_2 (4), WAH_2023_2 (2), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), eFLOWER_2021 (20), eFLOWER_Dun_2022 (28). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 48 traits from 103 records in 18 datasets.

Traits by category (click to expand). For categorical traits, the values are listed. For numerical traits, the mean and range are shown.

flower morphology

flower_colour (categorical): white_cream (1) [sources: eFLOWER_Dun_2022]
flower_diameter (numerical): 5 cm (4-6 cm) [sources: eFLOWER_Dun_2022]
sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_type (categorical): berry (2) [sources: NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): fleshy (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): indehiscent (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_colour (categorical): yellow (1) [sources: NTH_2023]

leaf morphology

leaf_shape (categorical): elliptical (1); ovate (1) [sources: NTH_2023]
leaf_margin (categorical): entire (1) [sources: NTH_2023]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: NTH_2023]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (1) [sources: NTH_2023]

life history

plant_growth_form (categorical): shrub (3) [sources: NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
life_history (categorical): perennial (3) [sources: NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): woody (3) [sources: NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): prostrate (1); spreading (1) [sources: NTH_2022; WAH_2022_2]
pollination_syndrome (categorical): insect (1) [sources: Draper_2023]
pollination_system (categorical): bee (1) [sources: Stephens_2023]
dispersal_syndrome (categorical): endozoochory (1) [sources: Draper_2023]
dispersers (categorical): vertebrates (1) [sources: Draper_2023]
flowering_time (categorical): yyyyyyyyyyyy (1) [sources: WAH_1998]
seed_dormancy_class (categorical): physiological_dormancy (1) [sources: Collette_2021]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 8.81 mg (1.52-15.1 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 1.82 m (0.3-3 m) [sources: NTH_2023; WAH_2023_2]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
eFLOWER_Dun_2022	23	28	L. Dun and H. Sauquet. “Unpublished: Floral traits for GAP taxa, University of New South Wales, Australia”. 2022.
eFLOWER_2021	19	20	J. Schönenberger, M. Balthazar, A. L. Martinez, B. Albert, C. Prieu, S. Magallon, and H. Sauquet. “Phylogenetic analysis of fossil flowers using an angiosperm-wide data set: proof-of-concept and challenges ahead”. American Journal of Botany 107.10 (2020), pp. 1433-1448. doi: 10.1002/ajb2.1538.
Kew_2019_1	1	16	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
NTH_2023	7	7	D. of Land Resource Management and N. T. of Australia. Northern Territory Flora Online. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://eflora.nt.gov.au/.
NTH_2022	4	4	D. of Land Resource Management and N. T. of Australia. Northern Territory Flora Online. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://eflora.nt.gov.au/.
Sjostrom_2006	4	4	A. Sjöström and C. L. Gross. “Life-history characters and phylogeny are correlated with extinction risk in the Australian angiosperms”. Journal of Biogeography 33.2 (2006), pp. 271-290. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2005.01393.x.
WAH_2022_2	4	4	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Draper_2023	3	3	J. T. Draper, S. Delean, J. G. Conran, P. Weinstein, and B. S. Simpson. “Life-history characteristics and climate correlates of dioecious plant species in central southern Australia”. Australian Journal of Botany unknown.unknown (2023), p. unknown. doi: 10.1071/BT22110.
Kew_2019_4	1	3	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Oil content data from Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Kew_2019_6	1	3	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Germination data from the Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Kew_2019_2	1	2	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
WAH_2023_2	1	2	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Wenk_2022	2	2	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
Collette_2021	1	1	J. C. Collette and M. K. J. Ooi. “Distribution of seed dormancy classes across a fire-prone continent: effects of rainfall seasonality and temperature”. Annals of Botany 127.5 (2021), pp. 613-620. doi: 10.1093/aob/mcaa203.
Stephens_2023	1	1	R. E. Stephens, R. V. Gallagher, L. Dun, W. Cornwell, and H. Sauquet. “Insect pollination for most of angiosperm evolutionary history”. New Phytologist 240.2 (2023), pp. 880-891. ISSN: 1469-8137. doi: 10.1111/nph.18993.
Sweedman_2006	1	1	L. Sweedman and D. Merritt. Australian Seeds: A Guide to Their Collection, Identification, and Biology. CSIRO Publishing, 2006. ISBN: 9780643094079.
WAH_1998	1	1	Western Australian Herbarium. FloraBase: The Western Australian flora. 1998. url: http://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au.
Wenk_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.