Capparis. Capparis cynophallophora . Above, flower, top view. Below, sterile branch. Drawn by P.N.Honychurch. Capparis flexuosa . a. Branch with flower buds, b. Leaf. c. Flower, side view. d. Flower longitudinally dissected, e. Fruit. Drawn by Priscilla Fawcett. From Correll and Correll 1982.

Linnaeus also realized that the American plants were different from those around the Mediterranean when he named both in 1753. He knew both species as living plants from cultivation, because he mentioned them in his Hortus Cliffortianus published in 1738. Moreover, he seems to have been impressed above all else by the long, slender, red fruits in the American plants. Certainly, those fruits were different from the short, fat pods of the European species. The Old World plants Linnaeus called C. spinosa because of their thorny nature. This and many other plants growing in the chapparal or maccia vegetation around the Mediterranean have armament of some type. The best-known American plants he called C. cynophallophora. This species name is one of the most famous examples of Linnaeus’s uses of ribald names. Capparis cynophallophora means “the caper that bears a dog’s penis.” No other person or people in the world seemed to have noted that similarity until Linnaeus pointed it out. His seems to have been a uniquely vulgar mind.