Search California Native Plants

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Water Jacket

Lycium andersonii

Lycium andersonii is a species of flowering shrub in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. Its common names include water-jacket, redberry desert-thorn, Anderson thornbush, Anderson's desert thorn, Anderson boxthorn, Anderson lycium, Anderson wolfberry, and squawberry.

It is native to the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, where it is distributed in New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Baja California, Sinaloa, and Sonora. It grows in many habitat types and plant communities, including pinyon-juniper woodland, creosote bush scrub, sagebrush scrub, chaparral, and coastal sage scrub.

It grows up to about 2.7 metres (8 ft 10 in) in maximum height, with a large fibrous root system that can extend over 9 metres (30 ft) from the base of the plant. The shrub is rounded in shape with many branches covered in many thin spines up to 2 centimetres (0.79 in) long. The flat leaves are thick and fleshy, measuring up to 1.7 centimetres (0.67 in) long. They are shed from the plant in dry conditions. The flowers have funnel-shaped white or purple-tinged corollas up to a centimeter long. The fruit is a red or orange berry less than a centimeter long. One of the main traits of this shrub is a pattern of rotating spike-branches that grow along the main branching stems. The individual spikes get larger and end up as rotating intersecting branches. It's form is dense and thicket-like, often impenetrable even by birds. Berries are produced sometimes in great profusion, sometimes only in external branches, and sometimes not at all. The berries are typically very bitter.

Lycium andersonii typically grows in sandy, gravelly washes and on slopes and mesas. It tolerates some soil salinity and alkaline soils such as caliche. It thrives in hot, dry climates. It is rarely dominant in the local flora. Common associates include creosote bush (Larrea tridentata), yellow palo verde (Parkinsonia microphylla), white bursage, (Ambrosia dumosa), smoke tree (Psorothamnus spinosus), Nevada ephedra (Ephedra nevadensis), hop sage (Grayia spinosa), pale wolfberry (Lycium pallidum), blackbrush (Coleogyne ramosissima), singlewhorl burrobrush (Hymenoclea monogyra), and Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia).

Baja Desert Thorn

Lycium brevipes

Lycium brevipes is a species of flowering plant in the Solanaceae (Nightshade) family known by the common name Baja Desert-thorn. It is native to northwestern Mexico and it occurs in California as far as the Sonoran Desert as well as near the coast and on some of the Channel Islands. It grows in the scrub of desert and coastline. It is also used as a southwestern landscaping plant. This is a bushy, spreading shrub approaching a maximum height of 4 meters but usually less, with many long, thorny, tangled branches. The branches are lined with small, fleshy green leaves up to 1.5 centimeters long and coated with minute hairs. The small cluster consists of tubular flowers roughly 1 to 2 centimeters long including the calyx of sepals at the base. The lavender to nearly white corolla is tiny, funnel-shaped and has 2 to 6 lobes at the mouth. The five stamens and one style protrude from the flower. The fruit is a bright red spherical berry about a centimeter wide containing many seeds. The berries attract birds.

Desert Thorn

Lycium brevipes var. brevipes

Desert Thorn (Lycium brevipes var. brevipes) is a native shrub that grows in Southern California, primarily in the Channel Islands and Sonoran Desert regions. It tends to grow in bluffs and slopes, at elevations from 0-2000 feet.

Santa Catalina Island Desert-thorn

Lycium brevipes var. hassei

California Box Thorn

Lycium californicum

Lycium californicum is a sprawling shrub in the Solanaceae (Nightshade) family known by the common names California boxthorn and California desert-thorn. This plant is native to the coast of southern California, including the Channel Islands, from Los Angeles County into northern Baja California, as well as nearby Arizona. This slightly thorny shrub has thick, fleshy, bulbous green leaves and bell-shaped white flowers with purple streaks or spots. It bears bright red shiny berries 3 to 6 millimeters in diameter which are edible and taste like tomatoes. There are numerous relatives in the Lycium genus that are primarily desert plants, but this species is strictly coastal. In the wild it goes completely leafless in summer and appears dead. However, it responds very rapidly to rain and will even leaf out in response to a summer shower. If given continuous garden water it can remain evergreen.

Peach Thorn

Lycium cooperi

Lycium cooperi is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family known by the common name peach thorn. It is native to the southwestern United States, where it grows in a variety of desert and mountain habitat types. This is a bushy, erect shrub approaching a maximum height of 4 meters with many rigid, thorny branches. The branches are lined thickly with fleshy oval or widely lance-shaped leaves each 1 to 3 centimeters long and coated with hairy hairs. The flower cluster is a small cluster of tubular flowers roughly 1 to 2 centimeters long including the calyx of fleshy sepals at the base. The flower is white or greenish with lavender or green veining. The corolla is a tube opening into a face with four or five lobes. The fruit is a yellow or orange berry under a centimeter wide containing many seeds.

Fremont Box Thorn

Lycium fremontii

Lycium fremontii is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family native to northwestern Mexico and the southernmost mountains and deserts of California and Arizona in the United States. It often grows in areas with alkaline soils, such as alkali flats, and is commonly known as Frmont's desert thorn. Both its common name, and its specific epithet are derived from John C. Frmont. L. fremontii is a bushy, spreading shrub approaching a maximum height of 4 meters with many thorny, leafy branches. The fleshy leaves are oval in shape and up to 2.5 centimeters long. Parts of the plant are coated in hairy hairs. The flower cluster is a small cluster of tubular flowers roughly 1 to 2 centimeters long including the cylindrical calyx of fleshy sepals at the base. The flower is light to deep purple with purple veining. The corolla is a narrow tube opening into usually five lobes. The fruit is a red berry 6 to 8 millimeters wide.

Pale Desert Thorn

Lycium pallidum

Pale Desert Thorn (Lycium pallidum) is a native shrub that grows in Southern and Central California, primarily in the Mojave Desert and Sonoran Desert regions. It is moderately fast growing and moderately long-lived. It grows in a rounded form to a height of 6 feet, with active growth during the summer. Flowers are purple and striking, and bloom in the early spring. Leaves are medium green and deciduous. It tends to grow in flats and slopes and washes, at elevations from 0-3900 feet.

Rabbit Thorn

Lycium pallidum var. oligospermum

Parish's Desert-thorn

Lycium parishii

Torrey Wolfberry

Lycium torreyi

Lycium torreyi is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family known by the common name Torrey wolfberry. It is native to northern Mexico and the southwestern United States from California to Texas. This plant is a spreading shrub reaching 3 metres (9. 8 ft) in maximum height. It may be spiny or spineless. It may form thickets. The lance-shaped leaves are up to 5 centimetres (2. 0 in) long. The funnel-shaped flowers are greenish lavender to whitish and measure up to 1. 5 centimetres (0. 59 in) long. They are borne in fascicles in the leaf axils. The fruit is a juicy red or orange berry up to 1 centimetre (0. 39 in) wide.

San Nicholas Desert Thorn

Lycium verrucosum

San Nicholas Desert Thorn (Lycium verrucosum) is a rare native shrub that grows in Southern and Central California, primarily in the Channel Islands region.

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