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Lycium carolinianum; photograph (c) Tom Field, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Tom Field, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-07-14

Lycium carolinianum Walter

Christmasberry; Carolina Wolfberry; Carolina desert-thorn

Solanaceae · Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto +20

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Lycium carolinianum, photograph (c) Kristály Cravens-Liszak, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lycium carolinianum, photograph (c) Tom Field, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lycium carolinianum, photograph (c) Kenzie Anderson-Bell, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lycium carolinianum, photograph (c) Kenzie Anderson-Bell, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lycium carolinianum, photograph (c) Kenzie Anderson-Bell, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lycium carolinianum, photograph (c) Kenzie Anderson-Bell, some rights reserved (CC BY) 79 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
1.9°C
Record low -8.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Jun, Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,283mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
19–41DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes March and May to October, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Lycium carolinianum, commonly known as Carolina desert-thorn or Christmas berry, is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family, Solanaceae,

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Lycium carolinianum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Lycium

Lycium is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. The genus has a disjunct distribution around the globe, with species occurring on most continents in temperate and subtropical regions. South America has the most species, followed by North America and southern Africa. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Lycium", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (841 mm of 1,136 mm) falls in March and May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.3 °C against a yearly mean of 22.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April and September.

Rain

1,136 mm in the median year at the habitat, 841 mm of it March and May to October. Wettest month September at 160 mm, driest months (2 at 57 mm). Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 684 mm to 1,533 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,283 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,136 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 1.9 °C, the absolute minimum -8.0 °C, 74 frost nights in 44 years, 1.7 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 12.5 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 9.6 °C to 19.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.3 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -25 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Lycium carolinianum through the yearWarmest months June, July and August, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 12.5 °C; 1,136 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost40.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-8.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 19–41RH 59–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 467 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C20 / 16–2520 / 17–2622 / 20–2725 / 23–3028 / 26–3130 / 28–3230 / 29–3230 / 29–3329 / 28–3127 / 25–2924 / 21–2720 / 17–25
Night °C13 / 10–2014 / 11–2016 / 14–2119 / 17–2323 / 21–2525 / 24–2626 / 25–2726 / 25–2725 / 23–2621 / 19–2517 / 15–2214 / 11–21
Rain mm57 / 28–12361 / 20–10466 / 16–10658 / 24–8280 / 48–113150 / 68–206134 / 64–209140 / 59–228160 / 126–215111 / 73–13762 / 33–11657 / 28–120
DLI21 / 19–2725 / 23–3132 / 30–3839 / 36–4441 / 39–4441 / 39–4241 / 38–4338 / 35–4133 / 31–3528 / 27–3122 / 21–2819 / 18–25
RH %60 / 58–6161 / 58–6361 / 58–6361 / 58–6462 / 59–6663 / 61–6663 / 62–6663 / 61–6663 / 60–6560 / 59–6359 / 58–6160 / 58–61
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 467 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1074 records in those cells; 40 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1270:1643 (26.475, -97.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -8.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 467 distinct grid cells holding 1074 of the 1189 in-range records (40 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1270:1643 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 26.50_-98.125, lapse-corrected -25 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 11 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Tonga, Easter Is., Pitcairn Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Hawaii, Texas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Cuba, Juan Fernández Is. · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker28.267, -82.5 · in the densest population, 679 records (48% of those in range)
Extinct inSouth Carolina · recorded as extinct by WCVP: history, not habitat; no records are tested against these regions
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1426 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1074 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1189 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 454 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1464 km away. 3 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 237 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1426 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Lycium carolinianum, photograph 1did not loadLycium carolinianum, photograph 2did not loadLycium carolinianum, photograph 3did not loadLycium carolinianum, photograph 4did not loadLycium carolinianum, photograph 5did not loadLycium carolinianum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Kristály Cravens-Liszak, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Tom Field, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Kenzie Anderson-Bell, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Sporobolus spartinae Sporobolus spartinae Gulf Cordgrass Photo: CC BY, Cleveland PowellSuaeda linearis Suaeda linearis Annual seepweed Photo: CC BY, Clifton Ladd, C.W.B.Oenothera drummondii Oenothera drummondii Beach evening primrose Photo: CC BY, Michelle W. （鍾偉瑋）Physalis angustifolia Physalis angustifolia Coastal groundcherry Photo: CC0, author not statedErigeron procumbens Erigeron procumbens Corpus Christi fleabane Photo: CC BY, Aubrey FrenchCroton punctatus Croton punctatus Beach-tea Photo: CC BY, Rachel Lee Harper

Other Lycium 26 in the reference

Lycium afrum Lycium afrum Kaffir boxthorn Photo: CC BY, De Waal HugoLycium andersonii Lycium andersonii Water-jacket Photo: CC BY, Sue CarnahanLycium barbarum Lycium barbarum Duke of Argyll's teaplant Photo: CC BY, agujaceratopsLycium berlandieri Lycium berlandieri Berlandier wolfberry Photo: CC BY, Rachel Stringham Lycium boerhaviifolium Solanaceae Lycium brevipes Lycium brevipes Baja desert-thorn Photo: CC BY, Marc Fradera-SolerLycium californicum Lycium californicum California boxthorn Photo: CC BY, Konshau DumanLycium cestroides Lycium cestroides Herzog cestrum Photo: CC BY, RAPLycium chilense Lycium chilense Solanaceae Photo: CC BY, Víctor Sarabia SánchezLycium chinense Lycium chinense Chinese teaplant Photo: CC BY, Hibiki KatayamaLycium ciliatum Lycium ciliatum Solanaceae Photo: CC BY, Marcos GramagliaLycium cinereum Lycium cinereum Blue Honeythorn Photo: CC0, author not stated all 27 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Evoista caroliniana; Lycium carolinianum var. normale; Panzeria caroliniana. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Solanaceae
Described by
Walter
Native to
Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Tonga +19
Wild records
1426 in range · 454 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 34 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (24 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 10 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 26.50_-98.125, lapse-corrected -25 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 52 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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