Capparis spinosa, the caper bush, also called Flinders rose,[3] is a perennial plant that bears rounded, fleshy leaves and large white to pinkish-white flowers.

[15] Capparis spinosa ranges around the Mediterranean Basin, Arabian Peninsula, and portions of Western and Central Asia.

[1] In northern Africa, it is found throughout the north and the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, where it occurs from sea level up to 2,000 m (6,600 ft) in elevation.

On the Arabian Peninsula it occurs in Oman, Yemen including Socotra, and Asir province of Saudi Arabia.

[citation needed] Capers can be grown easily from fresh seeds gathered from ripe fruit and planted into a well-drained seed-raising mix.

[19] This drought-tolerant perennial plant is used for landscaping and reducing erosion along highways, steep rocky slopes, dunes or fragile semiarid ecosystems.

In a typical serving of 28 grams (one ounce), capers supply 6 kcal and 35% of the Daily Value (DV) for sodium, with no other nutrients in significant content.

Capers are a common ingredient in Mediterranean cuisine, especially Cypriot, Italian, Aeolian Greek, and Maltese food.

Intense flavour, sometimes described as being similar to black pepper or mustard, is developed as glucocapparin, a glycoside organosulfur molecule, is released from each caper bud.

[20] This enzymatic reaction leads to the formation of rutin, often seen as crystallized white spots on the surfaces of individual caper buds.

[citation needed] Caper leaves, which are hard to find outside of Greece or Cyprus, are used particularly in salads and fish dishes.

[20] Archaeobotanical evidence of capers has been found in the Mediterranean region and Mesopotamia as early as the upper Paleolithic period.

It is represented in archaeological levels in the form of carbonised seeds and rarely as flower buds and fruits from archaic and classical antiquity contexts.

[citation needed] Another theory links kápparis to the name of the island of Cyprus (Κύπρος, Kýpros), where capers grow abundantly.

[20] In his 14th-century work Kaftor va-Ferach (Hebrew: כפתור ופרח), Ishtori Haparchi notes that capers were grown in the Jordan Valley region.