Peach-thorn, Cooper’s desert-thorn

Shrubs erect, 0.6–2.5 m; bark usually purplish to reddish; stems densely glandular-­pubescent. Leaves: blade spat­ulate to oblanceolate, 10–35 × 2–23 mm, surfaces usually densely glandular-pubescent. Inflorescences 2–3-flowered fas­cicles or solitary flowers. Pedi­cels 2–8 mm. Flowers (4–)5-merous; calyx narrowly campanulate, 4–14 mm, lobe lengths 0.5–1 times tube; corolla white or greenish yellow, sometimes purple-veined, tubular to funnelform, 8–15 mm, lobes 1.5–3 mm; stamens included to exserted. Berries greenish yellow to orange, ovoid, constricted at or distal to middle, 5–10 mm, dry, hard, strongly accrescent calyx usu­ally rupturing with fruit growth. Seeds 6–10. 2n = 24.

Flowering Mar–May. Sandy washes to slopes (Mojave and Colorado deserts); 100–2000 m; Ariz., Calif., Nev., Utah.

Lycium cooperi occurs in western Arizona, south­eastern California, southern Nevada (Clark and Esmer­alda counties), and southwestern Utah (Washington County). It can be distinguished from the similar species L. pallidum and L. shockleyi by its dense, glandular pubescence and hard, constricted fruit.