Downy desert-thorn or wolfberry

Lycium berberioides Correll; L. puberulum var. berberidoides (Correll) F. Chiang

Shrubs erect, 0.7–2 m; bark chocolate brown or reddish purple to black; stems glabrate. Leaves: blade spatulate, 5–40 × 2.5–11 mm, glaucous, sur­faces glabrous or pubescent. Inflorescences 2-flowered fascicles or solitary flowers. Pedicels 1–4 mm. Flowers (4–)5-merous; calyx cam­panulate, 4–8 mm, lobes ovate, length 1–2 times tube; corolla pale purple to white with greenish lobes, tubular to funnelform, 7–13 mm, lobes 2–3 mm; stamens included. Berries pale orange-yellow, ovoid, constricted proximal to middle, 4–9 mm, glaucous, dry, hard. Seeds 2–4. 2n = 24.

Flowering Mar–Apr. Desert hills, flats; 500–1200 m; Tex.; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango).

Lycium puberulum is similar to L. cooperi and L. macrodon; it is restricted to the Chihuahuan Desert, occurring in western Texas and adjacent northern Mexico. In that region, L. pallidum is the most similar species, but it occurs at higher elevations, has much larger flowers, and its fruit is a fleshy berry versus the hardened fruit of L. puberulum.