Capparis spinosa the caper bush Flinders rose is a perennial plant that bears rounded fleshy leaves and large white to pinkish-white flowers.The plant is best known for the edible flower buds capers used as a seasoning and the fruit caper berries both of which are usually consumed pickled or marinated. Some species of Capparis are also picked or harvested along with C. spinosa for their buds or fruits. The remaining are used in manufacture of medicines and cosmetics.The shrubby plant is many-branched with alternate leaves thick and shiny round to ovate. The flowers are complete sweetly fragrant and showy with four sepals and four white to pinkish-white petals and many long violet-colored stamens and a single stigma usually rising well above the stamens. It grows on bare rocks crevices cracks and sand dunes or dry coastal ecosystems. Clinging caper plants are dominant on the medieval limestone-made ramparts of Alcudia and the bastions of Palma Majorca, Spain. This aggressive pioneering has brought about serious problems for the protection of monuments.
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