About Capparis spinosa var. aegyptia (Lam.) Boiss.
This taxon is the variety Capparis spinosa var. aegyptia (Lam.) Boiss. The plant it refers to is a many-branched shrub. It has alternate, thick and shiny leaves that are shaped from round to ovate. Its flowers are complete, sweetly fragrant, and showy. Each flower has four sepals, four petals that range from white to pinkish-white, many long violet-coloured stamens, and a single stigma that usually rises noticeably above the stamens. The parent species Capparis spinosa grows across the Mediterranean Basin, Arabian Peninsula, and parts of Western and Central Asia. In southern Europe, it can be found in southern Portugal, southern and eastern Spain (including the Balearic Islands), Mediterranean France including Corsica, Italy including Sicily and Sardinia, Malta, the Dalmatian islands of Croatia, Albania, Greece and the Greek Islands, western and southern Turkey, Cyprus, and the Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine. In Spain, it occurs from sea level up to 1,300 metres (4,300 ft) in elevation. In northern Africa, it is found across northern Morocco and the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, where it grows from sea level up to 2,000 m (6,600 ft) in elevation. It is also present in northern Algeria (including Kabylie, coastal Algeria, Bouzaréa, and Oran), the Hoggar Mountains of the Algerian Sahara, Tunisia north of the Sahara, and Cyrenaica in Libya. In western Asia, it grows along the eastern Mediterranean in Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Syria, western Jordan, and the southern Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. It also occurs south of the Caucasus in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and northeastern Turkey. On the Arabian Peninsula, it is found in Oman, Yemen including Socotra, and Asir province of Saudi Arabia. In central Asia, it grows in the mountains of central Afghanistan, the lower Karakoram range in northern Pakistan and Ladakh, as well as in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and eastern Uzbekistan. Capers from this species are sometimes used in cosmetics.
