Lycium californicum

Lycium californicum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Solanales
Family:	Solanaceae
Genus:	Lycium
Species:	L. californicum
Variety:	L. c. var. californicum L. c. var. arizonicum
Binomial name
Lycium californicum Nutt. ex Gray

Lycium californicum is a spreading shrub in the nightshade family known by the common names California boxthorn and California desert-thorn.

This plant, as Lycium californicum var. californicum, is native to the Coastal sage scrub and coastal bluffs along the coast of Southern California to northern Baja California and the northern and southern Channel Islands. As Lycium californicum var. arizonicum it is found in the Sonoran Desert in southern Arizona.

Description

This thorny shrub, with rigid-spreading branches. has thick, fleshy, bulbous 3–10 millimetres (0.12–0.39 in) green leaves. The widely triangular bell-shaped white flowers have purple streaks or spots. It bears bright red shiny berries 3–6 millimetres (0.12–0.24 in) in diameter, and oblong seeds.

Varieties

L. var. californicum

The shrub variety Lycium californicum var. californicum is a member of the chaparral ecosystem and other plant communities of the direct coastline from Santa Barbara County south into Baja California, below 150 m. It is most plentiful in the ecotone between salt marshes-estuaries and the coastal sage scrub plant community. The destruction of this specific ecotone in this highly developed region has led to a reduction in the population of this plant there. It extends into the Inland Empire floodplains.

L. var. arizonicum

Another variety, Lycium californicum var. arizonicum, is found in riparian Arroyos in the Yuma Desert, Tule Desert, and greater Sonoran Desert across southern Arizona.

See also

• Boxthorn - Lycium
• California coastal sage and chaparral- (subecoregion)
• Coastal sage scrub - (plant association)

Further reading

• James, M. L. & J. B. Zedler. (2000). Dynamics of wetland and upland subshrubs at the salt marsh - coastal sage scrub ecotone. American Midland Naturalist 143:2 298-311.

External links

• Calflora Database: Lycium californicum (California box thorn, California desert thorn)
• Jepson Manual eFlora (TJM2) treatment of Lycium californicum
• USDA Plants Profile: Lycium californicum (California desert-thorn)
• USDA Plants Profile: Lycium californicum var. arizonicum (desert-thorn)
• UC Photos gallery — Lycium californicum