''Lycium pallidum'' is a species of flowering plant in the

nightshade family The Solanaceae , or nightshades, are a family of flowering plants that ranges from annual and perennial herbs to vines, lianas, epiphytes, shrubs, and trees, and includes a number of agricultural crops, medicinal plants, spices, weeds, and orna ...

known by the common names pale wolfberry and pale desert-thorn. It is native to northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. In Mexico it can be found in

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is d ...

Chihuahua Chihuahua may refer to: Places *Chihuahua (state), a Mexican state **Chihuahua (dog), a breed of dog named after the state **Chihuahua cheese, a type of cheese originating in the state **Chihuahua City, the capital city of the state **Chihuahua Mun ...

, Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosi. In the United States it occurs from

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

and as far north as

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

and

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

.Matthews, Robin F. 1994
''Lycium pallidum''.
In: Fire Effects Information System, nline U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory.

Description

This

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

grows tall. It is a dense tangle of spiny spreading or erect branches. It can form bushy thickets. The leaves are pale, giving the plant its name.''Lycium pallidum''.
International Institute of Tropical Forestry. The flowers are solitary or borne in pairs. They are funnel-shaped and "creamy-yellow to yellowish-green" or "greenish cream, sometimes tinged with purple". They are fragrant and pollinated by insects. The fruit is a juicy, oval-shaped, shiny red

berry A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples are strawberries, raspb ...

containing up to 50 seeds. The plant reproduces by seed and it can also spread via cuttings, and by

suckering Basal shoots, root sprouts, adventitious shoots, and suckers are words for various kinds of shoots that grow from adventitious buds on the base of a tree or shrub, or from adventitious buds on its roots. Shoots that grow from buds on the base o ...

and layering.

Ecology and habitat

This plant grows in many types of desert habitat. It occurs in pinyon-juniper woodland, sagebrush, shrubsteppe,

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

, and other ecosystems. It can grow in high-salinity soils. It is characteristic of the flora of the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily in ...

, and it also occurs in the Sonoran and

Chihuahuan Desert The Chihuahuan Desert ( es, Desierto de Chihuahua, ) is a desert ecoregion designation covering parts of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. It occupies much of far West Texas, the middle to lower Rio Grande Valley and the lower P ...

s. In the Mojave Desert it grows alongside plants such as winterfat (''Krascheninnikovia lanata''), Pima rhatany (''Krameria erecta''),

spiny hopsage Spiny may refer to: * Spiny, Poland, a village in the district of Gmina Pakosławice, within Nysa County, Opole Voivodeship, in south-western Poland * Spiny, a fictional four-legged creature in the ''Mario'' franchise, often thrown by Lakitu La ...

(''Grayia spinosa''), Shockley goldenhead (''Acamptopappus shockleyi''), Frémont's dalea (''Psorothamnus fremontii''), spiny menodora (''Menodora spinescens''), and species of ephedra, prickly pear, and

yucca ''Yucca'' is a genus of perennial shrubs and trees in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae. Its 40–50 species are notable for their rosettes of evergreen, tough, sword-shaped leaves and large terminal panicles of white or whitish flo ...

. In

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

it grows in riparian habitat with sycamore (''Platanus wrightii''),

willows Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist so ...

(''Salix'' spp.),

Arizona walnut ''Juglans major'' (literally, the larger walnut), also known as Arizona walnut, is a walnut tree which grows to with a DBH of up to at elevations of in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. It also occurs in Mexico as far south as ...

(''Juglans major''),

Fremont cottonwood ''Populus fremontii'', commonly known as Frémont's cottonwood, is a cottonwood (and thus a poplar) native to riparian zones of the Southwestern United States and northern through central Mexico. It is one of three species in ''Populus'' sect. ...

(''Populus fremontii''), alligator juniper (''Juniperus deppeana''),

Arizona white oak ''Quercus arizonica'', the Arizona white oak, is a North American tree species in the beech family. It is found in Arizona, New Mexico, western Texas, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Sinaloa, and Durango. Description The Arizona white oak is one ...

(''Quercus arizonica''), and

velvet ash ''Fraxinus velutina'', the velvet ash, Arizona ash or Modesto ash, is a species of '' Fraxinus'' native to southwestern North America, in the United States from southern California east to Texas, and in Mexico from northern Baja California east ...

(''Fraxinus velutina''). This plant is common around

Anasazi The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi, were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, a ...

ruins; they may have simply collected it and dropped the seeds, but it is possible they cultivated it. Many types of animals consume the fruits. Phainopepla especially favor it.

Woodrat A pack rat or packrat, also called a woodrat or trade rat, are any species in the North and Central American rodent genus ''Neotoma''. Pack rats have a rat-like appearance, with long tails, large ears, and large, black eyes. Pack rats are notice ...

s like the foliage.

Uses

Native Americans utilized the plant for a number of medicinal and other purposes. The

Navajo The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States. With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...

used it for toothache. They considered it a sacred plant and sacrificed it to the gods. Several groups used the fruit for food by eating it fresh, cooked, or dried, eating it mixed with

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

, boiling it into a syrup, and making it into beverages.''Lycium pallidum''.
University of Michigan Ethnobotany. Among the

Zuni people The Zuni ( zun, A:shiwi; formerly spelled ''Zuñi'') are Native American Pueblo peoples native to the Zuni River valley. The Zuni are a Federally recognized tribe and most live in the Pueblo of Zuni on the Zuni River, a tributary of the Lit ...

, the berries are eaten raw when perfectly ripe or boiled and sometimes sweetened. The ground leaves, twigs, and flowers were given to warriors for protection during war.Stevenson, p.94

References

External links

The Nature Conservancy
{{Taxonbar, from=Q311146 pallidum Plants used in Native American cuisine Plants used in traditional Native American medicine