Native plant identification key for the
Palos Verdes Peninsula, California


Leaves oblanceolate (longer than wide but with the widest part toward the tip) or spatulate markedly wider toward the tip) and fleshy/plate-like in-cross section, rather than subterete. Leaves entire, ~0.5-1.5 cm long, ~0.3-1 cm wide, almost sessile (attaching directly to stem with little or no petiole or leaf stem), sometimes a prominent midrib. Leaves are lightly pubescent (faintly fuzzy) and dusty olive green to greyish blue-green. They occur in clusters or whorls, arranged alternately along the stems. Stems are beige-grey, rigid, densely and intricately branched almost at right angles, and have thorny tips partly concealed by the leaves. There are 1-2 flowers on short pedicels (0.1-1 cm long) emerging from leaf axils. Flowers are tubular, small (~0.6-1 cm long and ~0.3-0.5 wide), pink or lavender. Corollas divided into 4 symmetrical ovate lobes, which are often slightly rolled backwards along the margins. There are 4 stamens that are exserted beyond the corolla. Blooms from March to April. The fruit is glabrous and round or ovate like a cherry (~0.4-0.9 cm long), containing many small seeds . The plant itself is a shrub usually 1-3 m tall. Favors dry slopes and bluffs near the coast. The Santa Catalina subspecies may be extinct, except perhaps on the Channel Islands, so its presence on the Palos Verdes species list is not without controversy.

Lycium brevipes aka L. hassei aka L. richii aka L. brevipes var. hassei (Solanaceae): Santa Catalina Island desert thorn, desert thorn


First placed on web: 07/29/11
Last revised: 07/29/11
Christine M. Rodrigue, Ph.D., Department of Geography, California State University, Long Beach, CA 90840-1101
rodrigue@csulb.edu

The development of this key was partially funded through the Geoscience Diversity Enhancement Program (Award #0703798) and through a course of re-assigned time provided by the CSULB Scholarly and Creative Activities Committee. Thanks also to the students in sections of biogeography, introductory physical geography, GDEP, and LSAMP for "test-driving" various editions of this key.