Capparis

Scramblers or shrubs with long branches usually with a pair of stipular spines at base of leaf. Leaves alternate, simple, entire, petiolate. Inflorescence terminal or axillary, paniculate, racemose, corymbose or umbellate, rarely with single, axillary flowers; bracts usually 0. Sepals 4, broadly ovate to orbicular, often with outer and inner ones unequal in size, convex, imbricate, free or nearly so. Petals 4, oblong or obovate, not clawed, usually white or cream becoming brownish. Stamens 6-many, free. Ovary on a gynophore at least 5 mm long, ovoid to almost spherical, with 4-many ovules on 2-many placentas; stigma indistinct, rarely capitate, on a style usually less than 1 mm long. Fruit a berry, spherical to cylindrical. Seeds 1-many, embedded in a fleshy pulp; embryo convolute. x= 6, 10 (aneuploids).