Shockley’s desert-thorn

Lycium rickardii C. H. Muller

Shrubs prostrate, 0.3–0.6 m; bark pale tan to white; stems glabrous. Leaves: blade spat­ulate to oblanceolate-ovate, 4–23 × 1.5–6 mm, succulent, surfaces glabrous or sparsely glandular-puberulent. Inflores­cences solitary flowers. Pedicels to 1 mm. Flowers 4(–5)-merous; calyx tubular to cam­panulate, 5–15 mm, lobe lengths 0.5–1 times tube; corolla white to greenish white or pale purple with bluish veins, tubular-funnelform, 8–14 mm, lobes 1.5–3 mm; stamens included to exserted. Berries green, ovoid, 5–6 mm, dry, hard, with strongly accrescent calyx. Seeds 2–6.

Flowering Apr–Jun. Sandy to rocky desert flats (Great Basin Desert); 900–1700 m; Nev.

Lycium shockleyi, endemic to western Nevada, is some­times confused with the more widespread L. ­cooperi. Lycium shockleyi can be readily differenti­ated by its prostrate growth form, four-merous flowers, glabrous leaves, and pale bark. The ovary has a large, red nectar disc that persists until the fruits are almost mature.