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Lycium shawii; photograph (c) Chase Mathey, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Chase Mathey, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2024-06-10

Lycium shawii Roem. & Schult.

Boxthorn; Desert-thorn; African Honeythorn; Arabian boxthorn

Solanaceae · Greece, Italy +33

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Lycium shawii, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedLycium shawii, photograph (c) Chase Mathey, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lycium shawii, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedLycium shawii, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedLycium shawii, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedLycium shawii, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 91 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
1.9°C
Record low -3.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
35°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
127mm
No month of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
22–51DLI
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
108 mm of rain in the median year, under the rule's 120 mm, so no rainy season is read; the cooler six months are November to April. rain and temperature rules, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Lycium shawii, desert thorn or Arabian boxthorn is a species of thorny shrub adapted to desert environments, and can be found throughout the Arabian Peninsula, and some places in Africa. The thin leaved, rigid bush grows up to 3 metres (9.8 feet) high, with a lot of branches and alternating spines that vary in size, and grow along the branches and on their tips. The leaves narrow towards their base. It produces small whitish-pink or purple flowers from September until April, and red pea-sized seedy berries that are edible. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Lycium shawii", 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

Rain at the habitat is 108 mm in the median year (across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Under 120 mm the rain rule reads no rainy season, and the growing-season rule infers nothing from it. The temperature rule reads the cooler six months as November to April. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to October.

Rain

108 mm in the median year at the habitat. Wettest month March at 23 mm, driest months (4 at 0 mm); 6 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 39 mm to 425 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 127 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 108 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: 22 to 51 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 53).

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 -3.1 °C, 33 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 7.1 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 5.0 °C to 15.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 35.0 °C in July (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: 46 to 55% 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 -13 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 shawii through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 35 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 7.1 °C; 108 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°frost40.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-3.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100mm rainDLI 22–51RH 46–55%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 448 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 °C17 / 15–2318 / 16–2522 / 19–2827 / 25–3231 / 28–3834 / 31–4035 / 32–4035 / 32–4033 / 30–3829 / 27–3323 / 21–2819 / 16–25
Night °C7 / 5–158 / 5–1610 / 8–1814 / 11–2117 / 15–2519 / 17–2821 / 19–2922 / 19–2920 / 18–2618 / 15–2413 / 11–209 / 7–17
Rain mm22 / 6–9520 / 4–8223 / 5–558 / 2–242 / 1–80 / 0–10 / 0–40 / 0–30 / 0–24 / 2–1710 / 3–4719 / 7–74
DLI24 / 21–2930 / 26–3538 / 34–4145 / 42–4749 / 48–5151 / 47–5350 / 44–5147 / 43–4841 / 39–4333 / 30–3826 / 24–3222 / 20–28
RH %55 / 50–5853 / 47–5751 / 45–5647 / 40–5446 / 35–5447 / 35–5648 / 38–5750 / 41–5952 / 39–5952 / 41–5853 / 47–5555 / 50–57
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 448 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1259 records in those cells; 27 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 1174:4297 (31.275, 34.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.1 °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 448 distinct grid cells holding 1259 of the 1554 in-range records (27 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1174:4297 (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 31.50_35.000, lapse-corrected -13 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 330 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.
NativeGreece, Italy, Kriti, Sicilia, Egypt, Libya, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Turkey, Gulf States, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, India, Pakistan · 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 marker30.605, 34.938 · in the densest population, 1335 records (79% of those in range)
Doubtfully present inAlgeria, Tunisia · recorded by WCVP as doubtfully present: not part of the range records are tested against
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “desert or dry shrubland” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1683 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1259 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1554 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 251 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1306 km away. 4 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 129 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 of the 1683 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 shawii, photograph 1did not loadLycium shawii, photograph 2did not loadLycium shawii, photograph 3did not loadLycium shawii, photograph 4did not loadLycium shawii, photograph 5did not loadLycium shawii, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (5); (c) Chase Mathey, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Lavandula pubescens Lavandula pubescens Downy Lavender Photo: CC BY, Mahomed DesaiOchradenus baccatus Ochradenus baccatus Taily Weed Photo: CC BY, Mahomed DesaiAsteriscus graveolens Asteriscus graveolens Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Karim HaddadCalligonum comosum Calligonum comosum Arta Photo: CC BY, Nolan ExeLavandula coronopifolia Lavandula coronopifolia Stagshorn lavender Photo: CC BY, Mitch Van Dyke Zygophyllum molle Zygophyllaceae

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 abeliiflorum; Lycium albiflorum; Lycium arabicum; Lycium cufodontii; Lycium ellenbeckii and 17 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Lycium barbarum Mill. is an older name of this species, not Lycium barbarum, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Solanaceae
Described by
Roem. & Schult.
Native to
Greece, Italy, Kriti +32
Wild records
1683 in range · 251 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; 8 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 6 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 31.50_35.000, lapse-corrected -13 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 34 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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