PLANT: Subshrub, woody at base, 40-90 cm tall, unarmed, without tubers or stolons, puberulent to soft -pilose mainly on stems and veins of leaves.

LEAVES: simple, elliptic, ovate or lanceolate, 1-5 cm long, 0.5-2 cm wide, ca. 2 times as long as wide, submembranous, the margin entire or rarely with occasional teeth; apex acute to rounded; base rounded to oblique; petiole 5-15 mm long.

INFLORESCENCE: an umbel-like panicle with up to 6 flowers; peduncle 5-2 mm long.

FLOWERS: actinomorphic (Fig. 3I); pedicel 5-15 mm long; calyx up to 7 mm long and wide, campanulate, the lobes deltoid, shorter than the tube; corolla deep blue to lavender, 15-30 mm wide; stamens equal; anthers 4-5 mm long, not adherent, opening by ashort slit; filaments up to 1/3 as long as the anthers; style longer than the stamens.

FRUITS: 10-15 mm in diam., green, not enclosed by the calyx; seeds 1.5-2 mm in diam., numerous, yellowish brown, reniform.

NOTES: Rocky bajada slopes in chaparral: Coconino, Gila, Graham, Greenlee, Maricopa, Mohave, Navajo, Pima, Santa Cruz, Yavapai cos. (Fig. 2I); 1000-2100 m (3000-7000 ft); Apr-Nov; AZ, CA; Baja C., Mex. Native Americans of the central valley of California ate the berries raw (Ebeling, 1986).

REFERENCES: Chiang, F. and L.R. Landrum. Vascular Plants of Arizona: Solanaceae Part Three: Lycium. CANOTIA 5 (1): 17-26, 2009.

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Subshrub

General: Perennial forb to subshrub, 20-150 cm tall, herbage short-villous with some simple unbranched hairs, 2-5 rayed, dendritic trichomes, and shorter gland-tipped hairs throughout plant and persistent.

Leaves: Ovate, lance-ovate, or oblong-ovate, subentire to hastately lobed at base, 2-4 cm long, blades slightly decurrent on petioles, latter to 1.5 cm long.

Flowers: Umbelliform cymes on peduncles 5-12 mm long, densely glandular-villous, 4-9 flowered, on slender pedicels 5-15 mm long, villous with a larger proportion of hairs dendritic than in pubescence of twigs and leaves; calyx 4-6 mm deep, broadly deltoid lobes one third as long as or equaling broadly campanulate tube; calyx enlarging to 12 mm or less in diameter in fruit; corolla dark lavender to purple, 1.5-2.5 cm in diameter, finely puberulent outside, glabrous within, deltoid lobes, stamens equal or essentially so, filaments 1.5-2 mm long, glabrous; anthers yellow, erect, 3.2-4.8 mm long.

Fruits: Globose berries 6-12 mm in diameter, greenish, smooth and glabrous.

Ecology: Found on mountain sides, outwash fans, and along the margins of openings in chaparral from 3,500-5,500 ft (1067-1676 m); flowers February-April.

Notes: There is one variety in Arizona: var. xanti. This description is for that variety.

Ethnobotany: A poultice was applied to sores, to swollen leg and shoulder, and the raw berries were eaten.

Etymology: Solanum is Latin for quieting, reference to the narcotic properties of some species, while xanti is named for Janos Xantus (1825-1894) a Hungarian botanical collector.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley, 2010