Lycium fremontii

Fremont's wolfberry, fremont's desert thorn

Family: Solanaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Fremont's wolfberry is a California native shrub found on the eastern slope of the Peninsular Ranges and southern Colorado Desert in alkaline flats at elevations below 500 meters. Flowering from March to April, this plant produces deep lavender to purple (or nearly white) flowers with purple veins, approximately 8 to 20 millimeters long. Growing up to 3 meters tall with spreading to ascending branches that are glandular-hairy, the shrub forms an open, distinctive shape. Its leaves are narrowly obovate, measuring 10 to 25 millimeters long, with a delicate texture and sparse arrangement. The fruit is a bright red berry 6 to 8 millimeters in size, containing 40 to 60 seeds.

Habitat: Alkaline soils, flats

Bloom period: Mar-Apr

Elevation: < 500 m

Bioregions: PR (e slope), s DSon

California counties: San Bernardino, San Diego, Imperial, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Santa Clara

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.