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The caper-plant belongs to a tribe of plants, the Capparidacese, of which the species are found in considerable numbers in tropical countries, such as India, whence they extend northward into Arabia, the north of Africa, Syria, and the south of Europe (Forskal, Flor. p. 99; Shaw, p. 395). The common caper-bush — Capparis spinosa, Linn. (the Casativa of Persoon) — is common in the countries immediately surrounding the Mediterranean. Dioscorides describes it as spreading in a circular manner on the ground, in poor soils and rugged situations; and Pliny “as being set and sown in stony places especially.” Theophrastus states that it refuses to grow in cultivated ground. Dioscorides farther states that it has thorns like a bramble, leaves like the quince, and fruit like the olive — characters almost sufficient to identify it. The caper is well known to the Arabs, being their kibbur, and designated also by the name athuf or azuf. The bark of the root, which is still used in the East, as it formerly was in Europe, no doubt possesses some irritant property, as it was one of the five aperient roots. The unexpanded flower-buds, preserved in vinegar, are well known at cur tables as a condiment by the name of capers. Parts of the plant seem to have been similarly used by the ancients. The caper-plant is showy and ornamental, growing in barren places in the midst of the rubbish of ruins, or on the walls of buildings. It was observed by Ray on the Temple of Peace aft Rome, and in other similar situations. It forms a much-branched, diffuse shrub, which annually loses its leaves. The branches are long and trailing; smooth, but armed with double curved stipulary spines. The leaves are alternate, roundish or oblong oval, a little fleshy, smooth, of a green color, but sometimes a little reddish. The flowers are large and showy, produced singly in the axils of the leaves, on stalks which are larger than the leaves. The calyx is four-leaved, coriaceous; the petals are also four in number, white, and of an oval roundish form. The stamens are verys numerous and long; and their filaments, being tinged with purple and terminated by the yellow anthers, give the flowers a very agreeable appearance. The ovary is borne upon a straight stalk, which is a little longer than the stamens, and which, as it ripens, droops and forms an oval or pear-shaped berry, inclosing within its pulp numerous small seeds. Many of the caper tribe, being remarkable for the long stalks by which their fruit is supported, conspicuously display, what also takes place in other plants, namely, the drooping and hanging down of the fruit as it ripens. As, then, the flowering of the almond-tree, in the first part of the verse in question, has been supposed to refer to the whitening of the hair, so the drooping of the ripe fruit of a plant like the caper, which is conspicuous on: the walls of buildings and on tombs, may be supposed to typify the hanging down of the head before “man goeth to his long home” (see the Penny Cyclopedia, s.v. Capparidaceae). SEE HYSSOP.
A low, spreading plant whose fruit was used to stimulate appetite. The caper (Capparis sincula) is a spiny, trailing shrub that grows in the Mediterranean region. Ecclesiastes 12:5 mentions the caper berry.
The common caper or caper berry grows abundantly in Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the surrounding areas, and in the mountain valleys of Sinai. The plant sometimes grows upright but more often spreads weakly over the ground like a vine, covering rocks, ruins, and old walls similar to ivy. The young flower buds, pickled in vinegar, were used by ancient people as a condiment for meat. The berries were also used in cooking.
Aquifer Open Bible Dictionary © 2026 Mission Mutual, an adaptation of the Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary © 2023 Tyndale House Publishers. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.