Capparis sandwichiana, the Hawaiian Caper, or maiapilo, is a sprawling, low-growing shrub which inhabits only the Hawaiian islands in coastal and near-coastal ranges. It shares its genus with Capparis spinosa which is commonly used in Mediterranean cooking and shares some traits such as a preference for little water which might be surprising when hearing it is endemic to these tropical islands. The white flowers are fragrant and quite large, serving as nectar source for Manduca blackburni and a forage source for larval Plutella capparidis moths, both of which are also endemic Hawaiian species. The plant is threatened in the wild, which should come as no surprise knowing it’s from the coastal regions and after the information I posted about all the other Hawaiian flora so far. Curiously, while many plants are given scientific names after people (often European naturalists), others’ names give a description of the plant or its origin. Capparis sandwichiana straddles these two potentials, being named for the location (“The Sandwich Islands”), which were in turn named that by James Cook, a British explorer. I am not the most passionate about plant naming conventions being actually useful, but the surfeit of plants with variations of “sandwich” as epithets is sort of absurd and stupid. While recognizing the value of the taxonomic system to categorize and make distinct species, I think it would be both practical and honorable to integrate native names instead of using monotonous species names such as “sandwichensis” or individuals’ names, for example this plant could be Capparis maiapilo instead. The first flower I posted in this series is actually a good example of it with a taxonomic name of Hibiscus kokio while the Hawaiian name is Kokiʻo. Anyway, enough of that! I hope you enjoy this plant as much as I did. Many thanks to Tim K from the Lyon Aboretum for giving me some cuttings from his personal garden in order to document this species.
