General: Anderson's Desert-thorn (Lycium andersonii), also called Anderson's Wolfberry and Water Jacket, is a stout, upright shrub with stiff thorns at the tip of each little stem. Leaves on older stems are short, thick, and fleshy, but leaves on young stems can be longer, wider, and thinner. These shrubs are deciduous, quickly losing their leaves as the summer heats up. Anderson's Desert-thorn is glabrous (hairless), including the leaves and floral parts.

Flowers are tubular, pale, and tinged with purple. The flower tube is long (to 10 mm), but the flower lobes are short (2 mm), and the sepals are short (2 mm).

Anderson's Desert-thorn is a common component of vegetation communities in drier areas along washes, on bajadas, and into the lower mountains in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zones.

Family: Nightshade (Solanaceae).

Other Names: desert thorn, box thorn, box-thorn, wolfberry, water jacket.

Plant Form: Upright, stout shrubs.

Height: To about 12 feet, usually 3-5 feet.

Bark: Whitish.

Stems: Generally upright, stout, each tiny stem tipped with a thorn.

Leaves: Usually small, fleshy; can be more flat and longer

Flowers: Blooms spring through early summer. Inflorescence: flowers from leaf axils. Flower funnel-shaped with 4 or 5 spreading lips, white to purple.

Fruit: Berry, red.

Habitat: Dry, well-drained sandy, gravelly, and rocky soils on upper bajadas and moderate slopes in the lower mountains.

Elevation: To about 6,000 feet.

Distribution: California to Utah, New Mexico, and northern Mexico.

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