Capparis arborea is a bush or small tree occurring in eastern Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. The habitat is rainforest

Rainforest

Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...

; usually riverine, littoral or the drier rainforests. Distributed from the Hunter River, New South Wales to Cape Melville

Cape Melville

Cape Melville is a headland on the eastern coast of the Cape York Peninsula. To its west lies Princess Charlotte Bay. It is part of the Cape Melville National Park....

 in tropical Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

. Common names include Native Pomegranate, Wild Lime, Wild Lemon and Brush Caper Berry.

Description

Up to 8 metres tall with a stem diameter of 25 cm, but usually seen much smaller. The trunk is crooked, short and irregular in appearance. Many sharp prickles grow on younger plants. Grey bark, with less sharp spines in older trees. Small branches fairly thick, dark grey though more green at the end.

Leaves alternate on the stem, simple, oblong-lanceolate in shape. Sometimes ovate oblong in shape. 5 to 10 cm long, 1.5 to 5 cm wide. Mostly rounded at the tip, although some leaves pointed at the tip. Juvenile leaves smaller than adult leaves with a prickly pointed leaf tip. Leaf veins visible on both surfaces. The midrib is raised under the leaf, but sunken on the top of the leaf.

Flowers and fruit

Single white flowers form from the leaf axils, around 4 cm in diameter. The attractive open wiry flowers form from January to March. Petals 15 mm long, fringed at the edges. The thin flower stalks are 30 to 50 mm long.

From December to March, a fruit resembling a guava

Guava

Guavas are plants in the myrtle family genus Psidium , which contains about 100 species of tropical shrubs and small trees. They are native to Mexico, Central America, and northern South America...

forms. Green, smooth and soft, globular in shape. Around 2.5 to 6 cm in diameter. Fruit stalks 3 to 5 cm long. The seeds are round and flattened, 8 to 10 mm in diameter. The pulp surrounded the seeds is edible. Germination from fresh seed is not particularly difficult, with the first seeds germinating after three weeks.