Capparis assamica - Assam Caper

Assam Caper is a shrub 2-3 m tall. Flowers are borne at branch-ends or nearly so, in racemes, 1- or 2-fascicled, 10-25 cm, 15-30-flowered, carried on flower-cluster-stalk about 1 cm, base covered by dense subulate bracts; densely rusty velvet-hairy. Flower-stalks are 1-2.5 cm, velvet-hairy like axis; bracts subulate, 1.5-2 mm. Sepals are about 3.5 x 1.5-2 mm, outside sparsely shortly velvet-hairy; sepals of outer whorl ovate, inside concave to boat-shaped; sepals of inner whorl elliptic. Petals are white, 3-4 x 1.5-2 mm; anterior 2 petals elliptic, slightly smaller, posterior 2 petals ovate, slightly larger. Stamens are 12-18, with filaments 5-6 mm; anthers about 1.2 mm. Twigs are tan-colored when dry, hairless or new branches, with cataphylls at base, without stipular spines or sometimes with rising up about 1 mm spines. Leaf-stalks are 5-8 mm, stout, axil often with subulate bracts on sterile twigs; leaf blade oblong to oblong-lanceshaped, 12-26 x 3.5-8.5 cm, somewhat leathery, secondary veins 10-12 on each side. Fruit is red, spherical, 6-9 mm in diameter. Assam Caper is found in valley forests, at altitudes of 500-1200 m, in the Himalayas, from NE India to China. Flowering: March-April.