Lycium barbarum L.
Chinese boxthorn
Deciduous, glabrous or glabrate shrub, 0.3-2 m high, generally with some long arching branches; spines scattered, rather soft and flexible. Lvs shortly petiolate, on mature stems, often in fascicles on spineless short spur shoots. Lamina 10-50 × 5-15 mm, oblong, lanceolate, ovate, sub-rhombic or sometimes obovate; base narrowly to broadly cuneate; apex usually acute, less commonly obtuse. Fls usually solitary, less commonly 2-3 together, on short spurs; pedicels 3-12 mm long at flowering. Calyx 2-3 mm long, campanulate; lobes broadly ovate, obtuse or acute. Corolla 10-13 mm long; tube narrow-cylindric; lobes 5-7 mm long, elliptic-ovate, light purple inside; apex rounded. Filaments hairy at base. Fr. (1)-2-3 cm long, ± oblong to ovoid-oblong, red.
N.: Hauraki Gulf Is, vicinity of Auckland, Waikato Heads, near Napier, Manawatu R.; S.: Canterbury, C. Otago.
China 1867
Modified habitats close to original cultivation sites.
FL Jan-Jun.
Chinese boxthorn was presumably introduced for forming hedges but is now a rather uncommon cultivated sp. Apparently it does not fruit freely in N.Z.
Several spp. are often accepted for this group of Lycium, but here, following Bean, W. J., Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles 2 ed. 8 (Clarke, D. L., Ed., 1973), L. barbarum is treated broadly to include L. chinense Miller and L. halimifolium Miller. The segregate spp. are defined on characters of habit, lf shape and corolla dimensions; the N.Z. plant most closely resembles, but does not exactly match, L. chinense, by which name it has often been known.
