Biblical plants: Bean caper plant

Zygophyllum dumosum, Bean caper plant,
Hebrew: זוגן השיח, Arabic: خريزى، خريزه

Scientific name:   Zygophyllum dumosum Boiss.
Scientific name:   Tetraena dumosa (Boiss.) Beier & Thulin
Common name:   Bushy Bean caper plant
Hebrew name:   זוגן השיח
Arabic name:   خريزى، خريزه
Plant Family:   Zygophyllaceae, Bean Caper Family, or Caltrop Family, משפחה זוגניים


Life form:   Chamaephyte, semi shrub
Succulence:   Leaf succulent
Stems:   Height 40-90cm, diffusely branched
Leaves:   Opposite, succulent; 2-foliolate with 0.5-1 cm, canescent, cylindrical, deciduous leaflets
Inflorescence:   Solitary, and axillary
Flowers:   white petals
Fruits / pods:   4-5-angled or winged capsule
Flowering Period:   February, March, April
Habitat:   Shrub-steppes, Desert
Distribution:   Semi-steppe shrublands, Shrub-steppes, Deserts and extreme deserts
Summer shedding:   Perennating

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Derivation of the botanical name:

Zygophyllum, zygo (Greek), “joined, yoked”; phyllon, phyll, φυλλον, “leaf”, foliage.

dumosus, dumos, “full of thorn bushes, bushy”.
Tetraena, probably from the Greek τέτταρες ‎(téttares), “four,” suffix -ένα -ena an organic compound.
The Hebrew name: זוגן, zugan, from זוג, zug, pair, referring to the paired leaves of many of the species.

  • The standard author abbreviation Boiss. is used to indicate Pierre Edmond Boissier (1810 – 1885), a Swiss botanist, explorer and mathematician.

Michael Evenari (1904-1989) describes, that the Zygophyllum dumosum has developed a special technique that can reduce its transpiring surface by up to 96 percent (“The Negev: the challenge of a desert”). Michael Zohary (1898-1983), a pioneering Israeli botanist, suggests on the basis of its cognate with the Arabic illam that Elim in Numbers 33:9-10 was named for Zygophyllum dumosum. Bible resources:

  1. Numbers 33:9-10
    They left Marah and went to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there. They left Elim and camped by the Red Sea.


Location: Nahal Shani Riverbed (red Nubbian sandstone) in the Eilat Mountains.