Littleleaf Wolfberry Flower Sabino Canyon Tram Road 1/31/17 Littleleaf Wolfberry Flower Littleleaf Wolfberry Stem Littleleaf Wolfberry Leaves Littleleaf Wolfberry Plant Littleleaf Wolfberry Stem Littleleaf Wolfberry Fruit Wolfberry Fruit Comparison


Wildflowers of Southern Arizona


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Littleleaf Wolfberry.
Lycium exsertum.
Nightshade (Solanaceae) family.

PLANT: Shrub 1-4 m tall, openly branched, sparingly armed, the branches rigid, densely pubescent when young, the bark dark gray or brown to reddish brown. LEAVES: spatulate to obovate, 5-25 mm long, 3-8 mm wide, obtuse or rounded at the apex, rarely acute, densely glandular-pubescent, attenuate to a petiole 3-5 mm long, densely glandularpuberulent. FLOWERS: pendant, single or in groups of 2-3 (Fig. 2A); pedicels 3-6 mm long; calyx tubular-campanulate, 2.5-6 mm long, densely pubescent; lobes 5, 1/4 to 1/2 the length of the tube, equal, or the calyx irregularly lobed and more or less two-lipped, then some lobes as long as the tube; corolla funnelform, slightly narrowed just above ovary, 7-14 mm long, whitish, greenish, or tinged with purple and brown, glabrous externally; lobes 5, broadly ovate or obovate, pale lavender, spreading, 1-2 mm long, with sparsely ciliolate or glabrous edges; stamens 5, subequal, from slightly to 2-3 mm exserted from the corolla-tube; filaments adnate to a point between a little below the middle of the corolla-tube, densely pilose on the lower 2/3 of their free portion; corolla-tube densely hairy from the base to the point of adnation of the filaments, then less densely hairy up to the point where the filaments cease to be hairy; anthers 1-2 mm long; style usually slightly shorter than the stamens, and only slightly exserted but sometimes long-exserted. NOTES: Upper Sonoran Desert in AZ, in washes and on mountain slopes. 300-1400 m (1000-4600 ft); Jan-Apr.

Santa Catalina Mountains.
Sabino Canyon Recreation Area
Location: Edge of Tram Road at Tram Stop #1
2/9/16, 1/31/17

Notes: Blooms found along Sabino Creek below dam 2/13/16

See SEINet Pictures and Description

Thumb: Fendler's Nightshade
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Thumb: Berlandier's Wolfberry
B. Wolfberry »