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Lycium ferocissimum; photograph (c) Demian Hiß, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Demian Hiß, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-03-09

Lycium ferocissimum Miers

African boxthorn; Box Thorn; Cape Box Thorn; Dune Honeythorn

Solanaceae · Cape Provinces, Lesotho +1

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Lycium ferocissimum, photograph (c) Jane Canaway, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lycium ferocissimum, photograph (c) Nathan Odgers, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lycium ferocissimum, photograph (c) Nathan Odgers, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lycium ferocissimum, photograph (c) Nathan Odgers, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lycium ferocissimum, photograph (c) Nathan Odgers, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lycium ferocissimum, photograph (c) Nathan Odgers, some rights reserved (CC BY) 88 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
7.0°C
Record low 4.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
25°C
Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
722mm
10 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
16–53DLI
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 winters: the rain comes October to March (April to September at the habitat), read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Lycium ferocissimum, the African boxthorn or boxthorn, is a shrub in the nightshade family (Solanaceae) indigenous to South Africa.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Lycium ferocissimum", 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 winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (578 mm of 745 mm) falls in April to September, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 14.4 °C against a yearly mean of 16.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: October to March.

Rain

745 mm in the median year at the habitat, 578 mm of it April to September. Wettest month July at 130 mm, driest month February at 20 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 549 mm to 988 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 722 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 745 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 53 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 7.0 °C, the absolute minimum 4.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 9.6 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 6.9 °C to 11.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 24.7 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 7.0 °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 62% 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 -199 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, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Lycium ferocissimum through the yearWarmest month February, mean daily high 25 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 9.6 °C; 745 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, southern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°35.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER4.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 16–53RH 59–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 8 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 °C24 / 23–2725 / 23–2724 / 22–2621 / 20–2319 / 18–2117 / 16–1816 / 16–1716 / 16–1818 / 17–1920 / 18–2122 / 20–2423 / 22–25
Night °C17 / 16–1817 / 17–1816 / 15–1714 / 13–1512 / 11–1410 / 8–1210 / 7–1110 / 8–1111 / 9–1213 / 11–1314 / 13–1516 / 15–17
Rain mm23 / 19–4320 / 14–3628 / 22–5361 / 50–8492 / 41–124119 / 43–158130 / 47–170103 / 55–13473 / 34–9340 / 35–6730 / 25–5926 / 21–50
DLI53 / 46–5347 / 40–4838 / 33–3927 / 25–2719 / 19–2016 / 16–1717 / 17–1823 / 22–2331 / 30–3241 / 37–4249 / 44–5053 / 46–53
RH %59 / 57–6360 / 58–6461 / 59–6462 / 60–6361 / 59–6260 / 58–6259 / 58–6261 / 59–6261 / 61–6260 / 59–6259 / 58–6259 / 57–63
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 8 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (14 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is 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 2476:3969 (-33.825, 18.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 7.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.1 °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 8 distinct grid cells holding 14 of the 16 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2476:3969 (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 -34.00_18.750, lapse-corrected -199 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 10 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.
NativeCape Provinces, Lesotho, Free State · introduced: Spain, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Cyprus, Norfolk Is., New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, New Zealand North, California · 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 marker-34.196, 18.45 · in the densest population, 15 records (94% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 16 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 14 of them in the land cells it reads, of 16 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1 openly licensed one, which alone would put the marker 39 km away. 625 records outside the WCVP native range not used.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 16 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 ferocissimum, photograph 1did not loadLycium ferocissimum, photograph 2did not loadLycium ferocissimum, photograph 3did not loadLycium ferocissimum, photograph 4did not loadLycium ferocissimum, photograph 5did not loadLycium ferocissimum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Jane Canaway, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Nathan Odgers, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5).

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

Romulea obscura Romulea obscura Slanting Froetang Photo: CC BY, Simon TamblynSteirodiscus tagetes Steirodiscus tagetes Asteraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloLeucadendron levisanus Leucadendron levisanus Cape Flats Conebush Photo: CC BY, De Waal HugoLachenalia reflexa Lachenalia reflexa Golden Soldiers Photo: CC0, author not statedOxalis versicolor Oxalis versicolor Peppermint rock oxalis Photo: CC BY, De Waal HugoTrachyandra revoluta Trachyandra revoluta Fold Capespinach Photo: CC BY, Simon Tamblyn

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 carolinianum Lycium carolinianum Christmasberry Photo: CC BY, Kristály Cravens-LiszakLycium 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 Gramaglia all 27 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Lycium campanulatum; Lycium macrocalyx. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Solanaceae
Described by
Miers
Native to
Cape Provinces, Lesotho, Free State
Wild records
16 in range · 1 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 answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF occurrence search API; 2 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 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 -34.00_18.750, lapse-corrected -199 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 3 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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