Capparis decidua (Forssk.) Edgew.
Sodada decidua Forssk.
Eng.: Bare Caper. Spa.: Alcaparrera del desierto. Fre.: Caprier sans feuilles. Ara.: Karira, karir, tondob, tundub, sodad, murkheit, kursan, kabbar, iknin, (Hassānīya): egnin, (the fruit): hunbug. Tamahaq: Ajaêlayam, aûjungun, ajangham. Tubu: Marya, kusomo.
Tree, small, upright, up to 6 m in height, with well defined or more frequently tortuous trunk, depending on where it grows and the pressure which it has undergone by herbivores and man. Bark greyish-brown, fissured longitudinally in trunk and old branches. Branching dense, with erect branches with pendular endings, glabrous. Foliage sparse; from a distance it often appears to be a leafless tree. Young branchlets green, glabrous, with small leaves, scarce and far apart. Leaves (0.4-2 × 0.1-0.5 cm), from ovate-oblong to oblong, ending in a spiny mucro, green and glabrous on both sides, usually narrower than the branchlet on which they are borne. Stipules (2.5-4 mm), spiny, straight or slightly retrorse, whitish. Flowers in groups of 2-8 (umbels, racemes or corymbs), rarely solitary, zygomorphic 0.7-2 cm in diameter. Petals ovate, red or reddish-orange, covered with a tomentum of whitish hairs, especially along the margins. Stamens 5-18. Fruit globose, almost spherical, first green then reddish, sometimes bluish due to the waxy layer covering it, 0.5-1.2 cm in diameter.
Flowering:
February to April.
Fruiting:
May to July.
Habitat:
Very diverse terrains in desert and subdesert areas, stony and sandy areas, hillsides and valley bottoms, silty floodplains, etc.
Distribution:
Saharo-Sindian, also extending over much of the Sudano-Zambezian region. North Africa, Middle East, reaching towards the E to western India. In North Africa it grows in the western, southern and eastern Sahara.
Conservation status:
Very rare but widely distributed species. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.