Lycium californicum

Taxobox
name = "Lycium Dalifornicum"


regnum = Plantae
divisio = Magnoliophyta
classis = Magnoliopsida
ordo = Solanales
familia = Solanaceae
genus = "Lycium"
species = "L. californicum"
binomial = "Lycium californicum"
binomial_authority = Nutt. ex Gray
synonyms =

"Lycium californicum" is a spreading shrub in the nightshade family known by the common names California boxthorn and California desert-thorn. This thorny shrub has thick, fleshy, bulbous green leaves and bell-shaped white flowers with purple streaks or spots. It bears bright red shiny berries 3 to 6 millimeters in diameter. This plant is native to the coast of southern California, including the Channel Islands, and northern Baja California. The shrub is a member of the chaparral ecosystem and other plant communities of the direct coastline in the region. It is most plentiful in the ecotone between salt marshes and the coastal sage scrub plant community. The destruction of this specific ecotone in this region has led to a reduction in the population of this plant there. A variant is also found in Arizona.

External links

* [http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/get_JM_treatment.pl?7625,7636,7642 Jepson Manual Treatment]
* [http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=LYCA USDA Plants Profile]
* [http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?query_src=photos_index&where-taxon=Lycium+californicum Photo gallery]

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.