Caper

Capers - capperi - are the small immature flower buds of a perennial spiny (thus ‘spinosa’) shrub native to the Mediterranean. In Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, it is cultivated, but it also grows wild, spreading up and over walls, along rocks and roadsides. It can reach a height of about 1.5m (5 ft), becoming very bushy. Its leaves are quite fleshy, and the flowers, if allowed to develop, are large, white and pretty, like wild roses, with long purple stamens. The smaller the bud, the tastier and more tender the caper will be, and when cultivated, the bushes are carefully picked each day, an expensive process which is reflected in the price of the best and smallest capers. The fruit of the bush can be eaten as well, known here as caperberries - cuncunci - which come, when pickled, attached to a vestigial stalk. These are larger, sometimes as large as an olive, and are seedy inside.