Lycium pallidum Miers

vernacular pale desert-thorn — species · Solanaceae

USDA: LYPA
GBIF: 2928820
Rank: species

pale desert-thorn (Lycium pallidum) — Platephotograph · Pedro Nájera QuezadaCC BY-NC source · iNaturalist ↗

§2Habit & range

Growth habit: Shrub
Duration: Perennial
Group: Dicot
Family: Solanaceae Juss.
Genus: Lycium

§2a

Native status, by region

L48 Lower 48 States Native

§2b

County-level range

· 28 counties across 3 states/territories

Legend Native · 28 Introduced · 0 Both · 0 Hover a county for detail.

§3Cultivation specs · USDA

Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.

§3a

Tolerances

Drought: High
Shade: High
Moisture use: Medium
Fire: Low
Salinity: Low
Anaerobic: None
CaCO₃: High
Hedging: High

§3b

Climate & soil

Cold tolerance: -13 °F minimum
Frost-free days: 140 min.
Precipitation: 10–15 in/yr
pH range: 7–8.5
Root depth: 12 in min.
Fertility need: Low
Soil texture: coarse, medium

§3c

Form & growth

Growth form: Multiple Stem
Growth rate: Moderate
Lifespan: Moderate
Mature height: 6 ft
Height @ 20 y: 8 ft
Foliage texture: Medium
Foliage colour: Green
Porosity (summer): Moderate
Porosity (winter): Porous
Flower colour: Purple
Fire resistant: No
N fixation: None
Toxicity: None

§3d

Reproduction

Bloom period: Early Spring
Seed abundance: High
Seed begins: Summer
Seed ends: Fall
Spread rate: Slow
Stratify: No
Seeds / lb: 5,000
Propagation: seed, cuttings, bare root, container

§3e

Use & availability

Commercial availability: No Known Source
Nursery stock: Yes
Browse palatability: Low
Graze palatability: Low
Palatable, human: Yes
Protein potential: Low
Lumber: No
Christmas tree: No

§4Counties, by state

Recorded in 28 counties across 3 states/territories.

§5Sources & provenance

USDA PLANTS

Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.

plants.usda.gov/LYPA ↗

GBIF Backbone

Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.

gbif.org/species/2928820 ↗

Record version

Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:

usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26

fetched 2026-05-26T09:28:40Z