Flora of the Hawaiian Islands
Dicotyledon Literature for Capparis sandwichiana
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999.
   Capparidaceae Bibliography
      Capparis sandwichiana

Common name(s): caper bush, maiapilo, pilo, pua pilo
General Information
DistributionIn the Hawaiian Islands, endemic to Midway, Pearl and Hermes, Laysan, Ni`ihau, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Kaho`olawe, Hawai`i.
















Click here for detailed USGS map by Jonathan Price
Habit
Shrubs; stems usually decumbent or prostrate, 1-5 m long, young shoots and buds glabrous to puberulent, usually glabrate with age.
Leaves
Leaves fleshy, often glaucous, ovate, elliptic, or broadly elliptic, blades 2.4-6 cm long, 1.9-5 cm wide, apex obtuse or emarginate, petioles 1-4 cm long.
Flowers
Flowers opening after sunset; calyx zygomorphic, outer sepal strongly saccate, 2-4 cm long, the others 2-2.5 cm long, glabrous or puberulent at base; petals white, turning pink with age, upper pair rhombic, 2-5.5 cm long, densely pilose along the line of union, lower pair broadly obovate to suborbicular, 3-4.5 cm long; stamens ca. 120-180, white, turning pink with age; filaments 3-7 cm long; gynophore 1-1.5 cm long at anthesis, elongating to 5-6 cm long in fruit.
Fruit
Berries orange at maturity, ellipsoid, 4-5 cm long, 1.7-3 cm in diameter.
Seeds
Seeds dark reddish brown to gray, asymmetrically reniform, 2.5-5 mm long, embedded in foetid orange pulp.
Chromosomes
2n = 40*