A note on the Petal-less Caper (B.Heyne ex Roth) Jacobs (Capparaceae)

The Petal-less Caper Maerua apetala (B.Heyne ex Roth) Jacobs (= Capparis apetala B.Heyne ex Roth) is a large-canopied but short dry evergreen tree, endemic to southeastern India. Though several publications on this species are available, none of them have reported its girth at breast height. Further, all publications reported it as deciduous tree with height ranging 4–10 m. During our field visit on 15 January 2022, we noticed a large tree of M. apetala measuring 3.30 m GBH and 10 m height inside Vattakottai Fort near Kanniyakumari which is the largest known tree. New distributional localities of this species in the districts of Kanniyakumari, Tirunelveli, and Madurai in Tamil Nadu State are also documented.