African Caper

tomentosa: tomentose, densely woolly

Mostly a robust woody climber but occasionally a shrub or small tree, armed with sharp, paired, hooked thorns. All young parts are densely velvety. Leaves alternate, oblong to broadly elliptic, grey-green, covered in velvet hairs; margins entire. Flowers quite showy, yellowish-green with a mass of long white or pinkish stamens. Fruit large, up to 4 cm, pink to orange when ripe. The fruits hang from a long stalk-like branch called a gynophore.

Frequent

Widespread in tropical Africa and South Africa