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Capparis tomentosa

Botanic Family

Capparaceae

Author

Lamarck

Common Names

• Kowangee
• Kaidodo
• Mkombamnyau (Kisambaa)
• Woolly Caper
• Chikatavuwa (Zimbabwe)
• Gonashindi (Zimbabwe)
• Mukorongwe (Zimbabwe)
• Umkanyengwe (Zimbabwe)
• Shao rui shan gan (Pinyin)

Geographical Habitats

• Angola
• Benin
• Botswana
• Burkina Faso
• Burundi
• Cameroon
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Equatorial Guinea
• Eritrea
• Ethiopia
• Gabon
• Gambia
• Ghana
• Guinea
• Gulf of Guinea Islands
• Ivory Coast
• Kenya
• Malawi
• Mali
• Mauritania
• Mauritius
• Mozambique
• Namibia
• Niger
• Nigeria
• Rwanda
• Saudi Arabia
• Senegal
• Somalia
• Cape Provinces
• Natal
• Northern Provinces - South Africa
• Sudan
• Swaziland
• Tanzania
• Uganda
• Yemen
• Zaire
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

Natural Habitats

• Lowland dry areas
• forest thickets
• riverine forest
• woodland
• bushland
• grassland

Flowering Times

• Aug-Nov (Zimbabwe)

Fruiting Times

• Jan
• Mar
• Apr
• May
• Jun
• Nov
• Dec

Liana or scandent spiny pubescent woody shrub to 10m sometimes glabrous with velvety branchlets and 10mm paired recurved hooked spines. Velvety tomentose or glabrous leaves 130mm x 60mm. Axillary solitary &/or terminal racemes or corymbs to 150mm x 100mm, with bracts to 6mm, sweet scented pinkish-yellow to whitish-green flowers with long white or pinkish stamens to 30mm long, sepals to 10mm long, tomentose outside, whitish petals to 25mm x 10mm. Round berry fruit red or orange-yellow with white seeds surrounded by pinkish flesh, to 50mm diameter.

Roots & fruit toxic

Leaves edible, used as fodder for camels, medicinal uses

Further References

• Sturtevant 1919
• Mobot
• Fzim
• NYBG
• FOC
• The Plant List 2
• USNH
• Botanicus
• FOTA
• Timberlake
• Flora Malesiana, FSom
• FTEA