Wildflowers of Southern Arizona
Berlandier's Wolfberry.
Lycium berlandieri.
Nightshade (Solanaceae) family.
PLANT: Shrub 0.7-2.5 m tall, rather sparingly branched, with few thorns at the end of branches, or practically unarmed; branches somewhat crooked, decumbent or flexuous, tan to silvery-gray, the older stems often dark reddish brown. LEAVES: glabrous, linear to spatu1ate-obovate, 1.5-6(-15) mm long, 1-2.5(-4.5) mm wide, rounded, sometimes acute or emarginate at the apex, fascicled. FLOWERS: solitary or in groups of 2-3 in the leaf fascicles; pedicels 3-20 mm long; calyx cup-shaped, 1-3 mm long, 3-5-lobed, the lobes deltoid, about one third as long as the tube, equal or unequal, the calyx frequently splitting to the base on one side, with a small tuft of hair at the tip of each lobe; corolla white or pale lavender, obconic-funnelform, constricted immediately above the ovary, 4-9 mm long, the lobes 4-5, 1/6-1/3 the length of the tube, usually reflexed; stamens unequal or subequal, included to longexserted; filaments adnate to a point between 1/3 and nearly 1/2 the length of the corolla-tube, hairy for the first third of their free portion, adjacent corolla-tube hairy, the portion below the insertion of the filaments from almost glabrous to densely hairy; style equaling the stamens in length or surpassing them. FRUITS: globose, 5 mm in diameter, many-seeded. NOTES: Sonoran Desert, along washes; 350-900 m (1200-3000 ft); mainly Jul-Sep, but occasionally at other times.
Santa Catalina Mountains.
Rattlesnake Canyon
Location: At junction with Esperero Trail.
10/22/15
See SEINet Pictures and Description