Real caper bush

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Real caper bush
Real caper bush (Capparis spinosa)

Real caper bush ( Capparis spinosa )

Systematics
Rosids
Eurosiden II
Order : Cruciferous (Brassicales)
Family : Capers (Capparaceae)
Genre : Caper bushes ( Capparis )
Type : Real caper bush
Scientific name
Capparis spinosa
L.

The real caper bush ( Capparis spinosa ), also called thorny caper bush , is a species of plant from the genus caper bushes ( Capparis ) within the family of the caper plants (Capparaceae). It is native to southern Europe and throughout the Mediterranean .

The Kaper (as synonymous latin capparis and ancient Greek κάππαρις kapparis and arabic kabbār from an Eastern Mediterranean language derived), also Caper , Kapper , Kappress or Kapres , the (inserted) flower bud of this species. Capers have been used as a savory cooking ingredient since ancient times , but were also considered a remedy and aphrodisiac .

description

Opened and withered caper flower, a bud lower left
A ripe, cracked caper fruit (caper apple)

The xerophytic , semi-evergreen or deciduous and perennial , richly branched caper bush grows as a small shrub up to about 2 meters high, or often depressed and only up to about 0.6 to 1 meter high, but up to about 2-4 meters wide. The caper bush has dense roots and is quite long-lived, it can live for a good 30–50 years.

The simple leaves are alternate and petiolate. The ovoid to heart-shaped or rounded, somewhat fleshy, leathery leaves are rounded to pointed or indented and sometimes also finely spiky. They are up to 4 to 7.5 inches tall. The stipules are mostly converted into sharp, often curved thorns .

The pea-sized flower buds grow on stems from the leaf axes of the branches. The delicate, mostly white, fragrant and individually appearing, long-stalked, relatively large, hermaphroditic flowers with a double envelope are four-fold, they open only once for a short time from morning to noon. The green, elliptical sepals are boat-shaped. The mostly white petals are slightly frilly and obovate to heart-shaped or rounded. There are very many (up to 100) long, reddish, purple-white stamens . The club-shaped pistil has a very long, white to reddish gynophore and the elongated, single-chambered ovary at the upper end is green to reddish, the small heady, flattened stigma is more or less sedentary.

Leathery and often longitudinally ribbed, green and reddish when ripe, many-seeded and ellipsoidal to egg - shaped berry-like capsule fruits are formed, which open with flaps. They are about 2.5 to 5.5 centimeters tall with a relatively thin pericarp , the many round to kidney-shaped, smooth and brownish seeds are 2-4 millimeters in size and they are in a whitish to reddish, sticky pulp.

Chromosome set The number of chromosomes is 2n = 24 or 38.

Occurrence

The caper bush is naturalized in the Canaries. Otherwise it is widespread in the entire Mediterranean area, as far as Albania and Greece. Furthermore it occurs in Turkey, Egypt, Iran, the whole Sinai Peninsula, in Yemen up to India.

Taxonomy

The first publication of Capparis spinosa took place in 1753 by Carl von Linné in Species Plantarum , 1, p. 503. The specific epithet spinosa means "prickly".

Several varieties and subspecies are known.

Pickled capers of the size "Surfines"
Pickled capers (giant capers)

use

The closed, unripe flower buds are harvested by hand in spring and are inedible raw. They are first drummed for a day and then placed in brine and vinegar . This creates capric acid and mustard oil glycosides , which give the capers their spicy, piquant taste.

Capers should be closed, olive to bluish green. Important growing areas include a. South of France and the Aeolian Islands . This is especially true for Salina , where a “caper festival” (Sagra del cappero) takes place every year on the first weekend in June . Also Pantelleria is an important growing region.

In France, capers are divided into different classes according to their size:

  • "Nonpareilles" (4–7 millimeters, the smallest and unparalleled in taste , French: "nonpareille")
  • "Surfines" (7–8 millimeters)
  • "Capucines" (8–9 millimeters)
  • "Capotes" (9-10 millimeters)
  • "Fines" (12–13 millimeters)
  • "Mifines"
  • "Hors calibres" ("Communes" 13-15 millimeters)
Caper leaf salad in the old town of Rhodes

Capers are usually only added to warm dishes at the end, as some ingredients quickly evaporate when heated. Salted capers, as they are preferred in Italian and Spanish cuisine because of their unadulterated aroma, must be watered beforehand. Because of their very special taste, other spices should only be used sparingly.

Dishes with capers in Italian cuisine are vitello tonnato , spaghetti alla puttanesca , insalata pantesca , in Germany the Königsberger Klopse , fricassee and beef tartare , in Colombia the ajiaco .

As a "substitute for capers" sometimes different in Germany pickled flower buds of other plants are used as the marsh marigold , nasturtium , from the lesser celandine (fig Wurz), daisies or dandelions u. a. The designation "German capers" for these types of flower buds is not permitted.

Mostly as a side dish or tapas , especially in Spain and the Arab world, caper fruits  - also called caper apples or caper berries - are served. These are very young capers, like the buds, they are pickled in vinegar or oil. These "giant capers" are 13 to over 20 millimeters in size. They are significantly larger and firmer than the caper buds and have numerous very small kernels inside. With them, the smaller specimens ("Finos") are also considered to be of better quality.

On the Greek islands of Santorini and Rhodes as well as on Cyprus , the caper leaves , also pickled in vinegar and salt, i.e. the leaves of the caper bush, are a culinary specialty.

photos

  • illustration

  • Flower with buds and leaves

  • Habitus

history

An early record of capers comes from Tell es-Sa'idiyeh , Jordan , where charred caper buds were found in a bowl in an early Bronze Age house on the lower hill that had been destroyed by fire. The short opening time of the caper blossom is the reason why the caper is used in the Old Testament of the Bible as an image for the transience of the world ( Koh 12,5  LUT ).

Capers were already used around 6,750 years ago in today's Turkey to flavor dishes and have also been found in 7,800-year-old pots from today's Syria. No later than 1100 BC BC capers were also used in Cyprus. In Iran, capers are used as a traditional remedy for hyperglycemia .

From antiquity to the early modern period, the flowers, leaves, roots and bark of the caper bush were used, among other things, as a component of medicinal products to remove superfluous “watery, slimy” body fluids. Therefore, according to humoral pathology , the indication for dropsy as well as hardening and swelling of the liver and spleen as well as, using the “caperwurtzel bark”, was used to “clean” hardened ulcers.

swell

Historical illustrations

See also

Web links

Commons : Real caper bush ( Capparis spinosa )  - Collection of images
  • Capparis spinosa L. In: Info Flora , the national data and information center for Swiss flora . Retrieved October 30, 2015.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helmut Genaust: Etymological dictionary of botanical plant names. Birkhäuser, Basel / Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-7643-0755-2 , p. 93.
  2. ^ Franz Dornseiff: The Greek words in German. Berlin 1950, p. 46.
  3. ^ Georg August Pritzel , Carl Jessen : The German folk names of plants. New contribution to the German linguistic treasure. Philipp Cohen, Hannover 1882, page 76. ( online ).
  4. ^ Capparis spinosa at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
  5. ^ Capparis spinosa at Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, accessed July 4, 2017.
  6. ^ Dictionary of Botanical Epithets .
  7. ^ Capparis spinosa at KEW Science.
  8. ^ Caroline R. Cartwright: Grapes or raisins? An early Bronze Age larder under the microscope. In: Antiquity. 296, 2003, 345-348.
  9. ↑ Hayley Saul et al. a .: Phytoliths in Pottery Reveal the Use of Spice in European Prehistoric Cuisine . In: PLoS ONE 8 (8): e70583, doi : 10.1371 / journal.pone.0070583 .
  10. ↑ Hassan Fallah Huseini et al. a .: Capparis spinosa L. (Caper) fruit extract in treatment of type 2 diabetic patients. In: Complementary Therapies in Medicine ,. Volume 21, Issue 5, 2013, pp. 447–452, doi : 10.1016 / j.ctim.2013.07.003 .
  11. ↑ Ulrich Stoll: Capers or purslane? Observations on the accuracy of herbal medicine then and now. In: Josef Domes, Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard Dietrich Haage, Christoph Weißer, Volker Zimmermann (eds.): Light of nature. Medicine in specialist literature and poetry: Festschrift for Gundolf Keil on his 60th birthday. Göppingen 1994 (= Göppinger Arbeit zur Germanistik. Volume 585), pp. 443–453, here: pp. 136 and 446.
  12. ^ Henry E. Sigerist : Studies and texts on the early medieval recipe literature. Leipzig 1923 (= studies on the history of medicine , 13), p. 43 f.
  13. ↑ Petrus Uffenbach (Ed.): Pedacii Dioscoridis Anazarbaei Kraeuterbuch ... (translated into German by Johannes Danzius), Frankfurt am Main (with Johann Bringern) 1610, p. 140.
  14. ↑ Pedanios Dioscurides . 1st century: De Medicinali Materia libri quinque. Translation. Julius Berendes . Pedanius Dioscurides' medicine theory in 5 books. Enke, Stuttgart 1902, p. 249 (Book II, Chapter 204): Kappareos (digitized version )
  15. ↑ Pliny the Elder , 1st century. Naturalis historia Book XX, Chapter 59 (§ 165–167): Cappari (digitized version ) ; Translation Külb 1855 (digitized version )
  16. ↑ Galen , 2nd century De alimentorum facultatibus , Book II, Chapter 34 (based on the Kühn edition of 1826, Volume VI, p. 615): Capparis (digitized version )
  17. ↑ Pseudo-Dioscorides de herbis femininis . 6th century edition: HF Kästner. Pseudo-Dioscorides de herbis femininis. In: Hermes , Vol. 31 (1896), Chapter 59: Capparis (digitized version )
  18. ↑ Avicenna , 11th century, Canon of Medicine . Translation and adaptation by Gerhard von Cremona , Arnaldus de Villanova and Andrea Alpago (1450–1521). Basel 1556, Volume II, Chapter 141: Capparis (digitized version )
  19. ↑ Constantine the African , 11th century Liber de gradibus simplicium . Pressure. Opera . Basel 1536, p. 365: Cappares (digitized version )
  20. ↑ Circa instans 12th century print. Venice 1497, sheet 192v: Capparus (digitized version )
  21. ^ Pseudo-Serapion 13th century, print. Venice 1497, sheet 138 (No CCXCI): Caparus (digitized)
  22. ↑ Konrad von Megenberg , 14th century book of nature. Output. Franz Pfeiffer . Aue, Stuttgart 1861, p. 365: Cappar (digitized version )
  23. ↑ Herbarius Moguntinus , Mainz 1484, Part II, Chapter 31: Capparis (digitized version )
  24. ↑ Gart der Gesundheit . Mainz 1485, Chapter 135: Capparus (digitized version )
  25. ↑ Hortus sanitatis 1491, Mainz 1491, Part I, Chapter 97: Caparis (digitized version )
  26. ↑ Hieronymus Bock . New Kreütter Bůch . Wendel Rihel, Strasbourg 1546, Part III, Chapter 10: Cappers (digitized version )
  27. ^ Pietro Andrea Mattioli : Commentarii, in libros sex Pedacii Dioscoridis Anazarbei, de medica materia. Translation by Georg Handsch, edited by Joachim Camerarius the Younger , Johan Feyerabend, Franckfurt am Mayn 1586, sheet 197r – 198r: Cappern (digitized)
  28. ↑ Nicolas Lémery  : Dictionnaire universel des drogues simples. , Paris 1699, pp. 145-146: Capparis [(digitized)]; Translation. Complete material lexicon. Initially drafted in French, but now after the third edition, which has been enlarged by a large [...] edition, translated into high German / By Christoph Friedrich Richtern, [...]. Leipzig: Johann Friedrich Braun, 1721, Sp. 228–229: Capparis (digitized version )
  29. ↑ Albrecht von Haller (editor): Onomatologia medica completa or Medicinisches Lexicon which explains all names and artificial words which are peculiar to the science of medicine and the art of pharmacy clearly and completely [...]. Gaumische Handlung, Ulm / Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig 1755, p. 295295: Kappern, Capparis cortex (digitized version )
  30. ^ Translation of the text by Franz Unterkircher. Tacuinum sanitatis ... Graz 2004, p. 64: Capers. Capers: Complexion: warm in the 2nd degree. Preferable: fully grown, not yet open, from Alexandria. Benefits: they strengthen the stomach and appetite, open blockages of the liver, spleen and kidneys, kill worms. Damage: they are difficult to digest. Prevention of harm: by boiling, using oil, vinegar and fragrant means. What they produce: warm blood. Particularly beneficial for people with a warm complexion, older and young people, in winter and in cold areas. However, if they are well prepared, they are beneficial to every complex, every age and in every area.