Lycium horridum leaves and fruit

The leaves of Lycium horridum grow in fascicles on short spur-branches or cushion-like mounds at the nodes as in the photo.

The leaf shape is narrowly oblanceolate with rounded or pointed tips. They are fresh green here and smooth, but may become blue-green later. The leaf texture is succulent to leathery. There is a conspicuous midrib. The leaf dimensions are up to 12 mm by 3 mm.

The bark upon the stem in picture is smooth and brown or grey in poorly defined patches. The spines are straight, hard and brown here, usually grey when they get older.

The ovoid orange fruit on a long stalk still has some narrow calyx lobes upon its base. The fruit turns red when ripe, becoming 5 mm long. It is edible, also consumed by fruit-eating birds (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010; Shearing and Van Heerden, 2008; iSpot; JSTOR).