Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 February 2026 | 18(2): 28428–28429

 

ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) 

https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.9485.18.2.28428-28429

#9485 | Received 07 November 2024 | Final received 14 January 2026 | Finally accepted 13 February 2026

 

 

A note on the Petal-less Caper Maerua apetala (B.Heyne ex Roth) Jacobs (Capparaceae)

 

Shamsudheen Abdul Kader 1 & Bagavathy Parthipan 2       

 

1 Department of Plant Biology & Plant Biotechnology, Presidency College (Autonomous), Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600005, India.

2 South Travancore Hindu College, Kottar, Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu  629001, India.

1 sakfri@rediffmail.com (corresponding author), 2 parthipillai64@gmail.com

 

 

Editor: A.J. Solomon Raju, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, India.       Date of publication: 26 February 2026 (online & print)

 

Citation: Kader, S.A. & B. Parthipan (2026). A note on the Petal-less Caper Maerua apetala (B.Heyne ex Roth) Jacobs (Capparaceae). Journal of Threatened Taxa 18(2): 28428–28429. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.9485.18.2.28428-28429

  

Copyright: © Kader & Parthipan 2026. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.

 

Funding: Self-funded.

 

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

 

Acknowledgements: The authors are thankful to the anonymous reviewers and the editors for their valuable comments in improving the earlier version of the manuscript.

 

 

 

A Capparaceae family member, the Petal-less Caper Maerua apetala (B.Heyne ex Roth) Jacobs (= Capparis apetala B.Heyne ex Roth), was first reported as a small unarmed tree, endemic to the dry forest in the Eastern Ghats in Krishna, Kurnool, and Cuddapah districts, and southern Western Ghats in Tirunelveli (Gamble & Fischer 1935; Ahmedullah & Nayar 1987). Later, it was reported to be a medium-sized deciduous tree, endemic to southeastern India, especially in Eastern Ghats (Pullaiah & Rao 2002; Kumar & Raju 2021; Narasimhan & Sheeba 2021; POWO 2024), and Kanniyakumari coast (Kader 2015). In this paper, we report it as a large-canopied but short dry evergreen tree. In Tamil Nadu, it was reported from the districts of Kanniyakumari, Tirunelveli, Virudhunagar, Madurai, and Namakkal (Narasimhan & Sheeba 2021). The first author already reported five small trees in Kanniyakumari Railway Station (Kader 2015) which were removed for extending the railway track during December 2020–January 2022. In this paper, we report that M. apetala is also distributed in Vattakottai Fort in Kanniyakumari, Kavalkinaru in Tirunelveli District, in the hills of Thirupparanuntram and Kidaripatti in Madurai.

Maerua apetala is a rare, large-canopied but usually a short, unarmed, dry evergreen tree with pinnately trifoliolate dimorphic leaves, small dark greenish-purple fragrant flowers in axillary and terminal racemes, and long-stalked ovoid berries (Image 1). It is an ethnobotanically important tree species. In Andhra Pradesh the Chenchu and Lambadi people use root bark paste and root extract to treat leucoderma. The tender leaves are ground with spices and the paste obtained is made into pills which are given orally for nervous disorders and foot pain (Flowers of India 2023). It has been reported to grow up to 4 m (Pullaiah 2000), up to 5 m (Pullaiah & Rao 2002), and up to 10 m height (Kumar & Raju 2021) at 0–300 m elevation, however, none of them reported its girth. During our field visit on 15 January 2022, we noticed a large tree with 3.30 m GBH and 10 m height inside Vattakottai Fort near Kanniyakumari (Image 1). It is the largest known tree of M. apetala and is under the control of Tamil Nadu State Department of Archeology. Extensive explorations to similar habitats in the adjacent localities are required to estimate its threat status for conservation assessment. Its flowering occurs during December–February and fruiting during February–April.

 

For image - - click here for full PDF

 

 

References

 

Ahmedullah, M. & M.P. Nayar (1987). Endemic Plants of the Indian Region. Vol. 1. Peninsular India. Botanical Survey of India, Calcutta, 261 pp.

Kader, S.A. (2015). Taxonomical studies on Niebuhria apetala Dunn (Capparidaceae) – A Lesser Known Tree, Endemic to Southern India. Journal of Economic and Taxonomic Botany 39(3–4): 460–462.

Flowers of India (2023). http://m.flowersofindia.net. Accessed on 30.ix.2023.

Gamble, J.S. & C.E.C. Fischer (1935). Flora of the Presidency of Madras (Reprint). Vol. I. Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh, Dehra Dun, India, 577 pp.

Narasimhan, D. & J.I. Sheeba (2021). Flowering Plants of Tamil Nadu. A Compendium, Tamil Nadu Biodiversity Board, Chennai, 1114 pp.

POWO (2024). Maerua apetala. http://powo.science.kew.org. The Royal Botanic Gardens. Accessed on 07.xi.2024.

Pullaiah, T. (2000). Flora of Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh, India. Daya Books, New Delhi, 417 pp.

Pullaiah, T. & D.M. Rao (2002). Flora of Eastern Ghats: Hill Ranges of South East India. Vol. 1, Regency Publications, New Delhi, 346 pp.

Kumar, S.S. & A.J.S. Raju (2021). Pollination ecology of the rare tropical deciduous tree species, Maerua apetala (Roth) Jacobs (Capparaceae) in the Southern Eastern Ghats forest of  Andhra Pradesh, India. Annali Di Botanica (Roma) 11: 33–42.