About Capparis spinosa var. canescens Coss.
This taxon is a variety of Capparis spinosa, formally named Capparis spinosa var. canescens Coss. It grows as a many-branched shrub, with thick, shiny, alternate leaves that range in shape from round to ovate. Its flowers are complete, sweetly fragrant, and showy; they have four sepals, four white to pinkish-white petals, many long violet-colored stamens, and a single stigma that usually stands noticeably above the stamens. Capparis spinosa as a species is distributed across the Mediterranean Basin, the Arabian Peninsula, and parts of Western and Central Asia. In southern Europe, it occurs in southern Portugal, southern and eastern Spain (including the Balearic Islands), Mediterranean France including Corsica, Italy including Sicily and Sardinia, Malta, Croatia's Dalmatian islands, Albania, Greece and the Greek Islands, western and southern Turkey, Cyprus, and the Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine. In Spain, it grows from sea level up to 1,300 metres (4,300 ft) in elevation. In northern Africa, it is found across northern Morocco and the Atlas Mountains there, where it grows from sea level up to 2,000 m (6,600 ft) in elevation. It also occurs in northern Algeria (including Kabylie, coastal Algeria, Bouzaréa, and Oran), the Hoggar Mountains of the Algerian Sahara, Tunisia north of the Sahara, and Cyrenaica in Libya. In western Asia, it is found along the eastern Mediterranean in Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Syria, western Jordan, and the southern Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. It also grows south of the Caucasus in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and northeastern Turkey. On the Arabian Peninsula it occurs in Oman, Yemen (including Socotra), and Asir province of Saudi Arabia. In central Asia, it inhabits the mountains of central Afghanistan, the lower Karakoram range in northern Pakistan and Ladakh, and also occurs in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and eastern Uzbekistan. Capers from the plant are sometimes used in cosmetics.
