This woody climber can stand alone as a plant or climb into trees. Has alternate emarginate ovoid to elliptical leaves. Always thought it was just a weed until I saw it bloom at night this month. Zone 11. Molamola, do you know it?
Please identify
Another pic
Looks like something in the Myrtaceae, the Myrtle Family.
Thank you. Any more help out there?
Melissa, my brother is making me go to the Brew Pub tonite. I'll be the one freezing, and the only one drinking whiskey! How are you doing with all this water?? Debbie
Can you show pictures of the fruit. Is this hardy on your land; does it survive winters in NY?
LOL, this is a Caribbean plant/vine. Deb is a 'snowbird', her STX is for St Croix, US Virgin Islands. I doubt the vine is hardy at all. If I remember, it has pea or bean sort of seed pods. I'll take some photos tomorrow, everything is right sad looking now, a lot of rain today.
The flower is showy and very pretty, all stamens and not very noticeable petals. Very sweetly fragrant. Does grow all over the place, along the roadsides, doesn't seem to be in cultivation much. I guess it's a vine, tho' no tendrils.
I've measured over eight inches of rain in the last 24 hours, alternating sprinkling and downpours. Soggy! I bet this 'blob' of rain, which has dumped as much as thirty(!) inches of rain on Southwest Puerto Rico in the last day or two, will be our next Storm. It covers a lot of territory, and is growing and moving very slowly, five mph, northward, and westward.
Deb, I am strictly a daytime person. Home by five or six pm, haha! Mostly because I wander around alone. A man's company changes things. I like the Brewpub, I should go there more often.
I've never noticed the fruit, Melissa. Must be legume, then? good start. Weird how the flower is like the mimosa family.
I got lotsa men. We'll make sure you're escorted! Night time is too much fun to miss all the time. Got seeds from the huge Baobob in C'sted!! I'll check them out tomorrow when I'm dryer.
As it has a "pea or bean" looking seedpod, it must be a legume; the flowers would place it in the Mimosidae Sub-Family.
Can you give us some further definition of the plant Molamola?
Exactly what I thought, Metro. Still can't find it though. Every legume I know down here has pinnate leaves, including Calliandra.
A strikingly beautiful bloom. You guys have the most wonderful weeds! OK, I'm jealous.
Sylvain.
And I played butcher. I'll keep an eye out for when they open naturally, and pot photos then.
When I lived back up in Ole Virginny, I knew the latin name for almost everything. When I moved to the Caribbean in '76, I decided to not learn any names, even common. Burn out?
( Deb, I'm sixty years old and have only 15% of my hearing, and am yawning here for a half hour, it's 9pm. lol, daytime person! I guess I'm tired of guys and bars, except for daytime, and scuba and sailing...)
This message was edited Sep 23, 2008 9:10 PM
You got it Melissa! I did too the second I walked out the door this morning. Good job on the seed pods. I couldn't find any on the baby trees, only flowers. The mature trees, however, have fruited. Never saw the fruits or flowers before, cause never came down in Sept! I remember taking a sample of leaves to the St. George's Botanical garden, and asking the guy if it could be a caper-- he said no! Threw me off some more. Anyways, you tropic people, this is a Jamaica Caper in the family Capparaceae. It just seeds itself, like Genips, Fiddlewoods, and pretty much everything else around here. Great find for me. Thanks everybody. Deb XO
Here's a pic of the little Caper in fruit. Genus and species might be changed. I found it in a book (hand drawing no less) that was published 13 years ago. If anyone can update me, I'd appreciate it.
Very interesting, the flowers and leaves are reminiscent of Hawaiian Capers, Capparis sandwichiana. Didn't even cross my mind! The fruit is much different than our plants. Have you tasted the flower buds? Hawaiian Capers are as hot as Chili Peppers!
Metro, even more curious, the seed pods open in wet/rainy weather, the insides are brilliant vermillion red. I brought one home once, and when it dried out, it closed back up, you couldn't tell it'd opened at all! Only one difference between rainy/dry season plants and northern summer/winter plants.
I'd have to be very sure of what I was tasting, I've developed an extreme allergy to Nightshades and maybe other plant families.
Metro, you mean the capers are in the flower buds? They are not the seeds? Lots of poisonous stuff around here. Can you tell me more? Would be so cool to have capers!
Hey Deb, the Capers are the pickled flower buds.
My favorite way to do this is to make a Rosemary vinegar, place the capers in the brine, add extra salt, let them sit at room temperature for several days, then refridgerate till used. (This is a common way to pickle any vegetable.)
If you can collect enough Capparis buds to make homemade capers, you have an unusual spice, found no where else on Earth!
Aloha, Dave
So are the first pictures posted, the same plant as the last pictures?
The flowers, and my pictures are the same plant, probably. The little tree (post # 5591957) looks very much like a little tree that I've seen around that I'm quite fond of. It has fragrant flowers and similar seed pods, But the flowers are different. And I've never seen this woody vine in a small tree form, but I may have been unsighted, I'll keep an eye out now, for sure. The vine's symmetrical growth of the leaves is very noticeable.
Being in a place where plants bloom and go to seed in a matter of days, it'll be a year before I can go get a photo of the tree that I have in mind. Hmm, sorry about that.
I haven't found a decent ID book for Caribbean natives. I'll ask my Island Man gardener guy, he might know.
This discussion about pickling caper buds reminded me that while I lived in Canada, about this time of year, I would go to the wine room in the basement and pull out at least 2 cases of colourless wine bottles. I would then go into the her garden, where I harvested lemon thyme, green onions, garlic, basil, rosemary, marjoram, etc. I would put stalks into the sterilized bottles, add about 1 tsp peppercorns, 1tsp salt, the microwaved garlic and white vinegar. I left them covered with aluminium foil tops for a day or 2 before corking the bottles. And Voilą: a great hostess gift for friends and a great vinegar for gourmet cooking.
I also used to make fire oil by putting crushed chillies into wine bottles, adding canola oil. I would cover the tops of the bottles with aluminium foil, put the bottles in a pot of boiling water set on the counter and leave them there until the next morning, where I would cork them. Come to think, I have got to make some fire oil soon.
Take care, all.
Sylvain.
I haven't done much research, but Melissa you are certainly right. Two different Capers. All I've come up with so far is the pic you have is probably Capparis lanceolate, the thin leafed one. The one I see flowering might be Capparis flexuosa. I sure wish I new for sure. My family would love capers!! Also, the one's fruiting have had this noticeable crud on the leaves like barnacles. No clue.
Please help with the research guys. You know much more than I do, and I would certainly appreciate any ideas. Thanks. Debbie
Maybe the "barnacles" are scales. They can be taken care of with mild shampoo; mix 4 ounces per gallon of water, and spray it over the affected area of the plant.