Lycium cinereum

Lycium cinereum, called kriedoring in Afrikaans, a name shared with several other Lycium species, is a spiny shrub reaching heights from 50 cm to 1,5 m. The initially thin spines on young branches develop into thickish side-branches with leaf clusters and spiny tips. The bark is pale grey and slightly rough with age.

The flowers are narrowly tubular, ending in short rounded corolla lobes spreading from the slightly trumpet-shaped mouth. Flower colour is white, pale blue or mauve with dark veins, the corolla fading to beige. The stamens bearing whitish anthers and the style with its small stigma are exserted.

Flowering happens from mid-autumn to mid-spring. The small ovoid to nearly globose fruit that follow are yellow-orange or red.

The species is distributed widely across southern Africa, recorded in all nine South African provinces; less common in the eastern parts of the country.

The habitat is diverse, often arid sandy flats or rocky slopes. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Le Roux, et al, 2005; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iSpot; http://redlist.sanbi.org).