Carnegiea gigantea, Giant Saguaro

Southwest Desert Flora

Home to the plants of the Sonoran, Chihuahuan and Mojave Deserts

Cirsium ochrocentrum, Yellowspine Thistle

Capparaceae (or Capparidaceae), Caper Family

The Capparaceae (or Capparidaceae), family commonly known as the caper family is closely related the Mustard Family (Brassicaceae) with similar characteristics.

The genus Cleome and several related genera are more closely related to the Brassicaceae family than to the other Capparaceae and are now placed in the Cleomaceae family. These changes will be reflected in Southwest Desert Flora at a later date.

In North America, according to the USDA Plants Database, there are 14 genera with 59 accepted taxa overall in the Capparaceae family.

Worldwide The Plant List  identifies 34 genera and 449 accepted species names for the Capparaceae family.

References: 02/15/2015, updated 04/08/2017
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service on-line database and USGS ITIS search - (accessed 04/08/2017)
https://plants.usda.gov/java/stateSearch
https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=CLIS
The Plant List. A working list of all known plant species. [accessed 15 February 2015
http://www.theplantlist.org/1.1/browse/A/Capparaceae/
http://www.theplantlist.org/1.1/browse/A/Cleomaceae/
Wikipedia contributors, 'Capparaceae', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 27 January 2015, 11:07 UTC,
[accessed 15 February 2015]