Plants scrambling shrubs up to 3 m tall; young twigs densely covered with short , appressed hairs. Leaves petiolate; petioles 0.4-2.6 cm long; blades ovate-ellitpic, 2.5-5(-6) cm long, 1.4-4.5 cm wide, thick to leathery, both surfaces pubescent when young, bases rounded, aubcordatr, or cuneate, tips obtuse or acute with recurved mucro. Flowers axillary; pedicels stout, 2.3-11 cm long, thickening in fruit; calyces bilaterally symmetric, posterior selas up to 3.5-4 cm long, saccate, the others 1.4-2 cm long, concave, externally puberulent or glabrous, with tomentose margins; petals whitish, glabrous or puberulent, the upper pair connate, obdeltoid, up to 3.5 cm long, their tips included in the posterioe sepal, the lower pair ot petals free, obovate, 1.2-1.8 cm long; stamens many, up to 3 cm long; gynophores 3.5-6 cm long, thickened in fruit; ovaries elliptic-obovate, about 5 mm long; stigmas flattened, subsessile. Fruits globose-ellipsoid, reddish, 3-6 cm ling, 1.6-4 cm wide,, ribbed.
Capparis cartilaginea grows in deciduous, evergreem and semi-desert open bushland, on clffs, rocky slopes and sandy soil at elevations up to 1500 m and on roadsides. It is known from regions N1-3, C1, S2, and S3 of the Flora of Somalia plus Ehiopia, Djibouto, Sudan, Kenya, and Tanzania. The fruits are reported to be edible and the leaves are chewed against coughing.