BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Lycium pallidum | Pale Wolfberry 



GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : 
Pale wolfberry is a spiny, densely branched shrub with stems 3.3 to 9.9
feet (1-3 m) tall.  Branches may be spreading to erect.  The axillary
flowers are bell-shaped and are borne singly or in clusters.  The fruit
is a red juicy berry with 20 to 50 seeds [20,31,33,43,47].  Pale
wolfberry may form dense thickets [43].

The distribution of small and large roots of pale wolfberry on desert
pavement underlain by caliche at 20 to 40 inches (50-100 cm) [2] at Rock
Valley, Nevada follows (values are percent of total root system weight)
[44]:

                                Depth                     
        0-10 cm   10-20 cm   20-30 cm   30-40 cm   40-50 cm   50+ cm
______________________________________________________________________
large    27.5       28.3       9.8        5.4        3.5         0
small     2.9       10.5       6.5        3.2        2.6         0

The exact sizes of large and small roots were not given.

The roots of wolfberry species are tough and fibrous.  Root systems are
relatively extensive in comparison with aerial portions, often extending
25 to 30 feet (7.5-9.0 m) from the plant [42].

Phytomass measurements for new leaf, stem, flower, and fruit
productivity of pale wolfberry at Rock Valley, Nevada in wet and dry
years are available in the literature [5].  Estimated aboveground net
productivity values of pale wolfberry at the same site for the period
1971 to 1976 are also available [39].


RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM : 
   Phanerophyte


REGENERATION PROCESSES : 
Pale wolfberry regenerates from cuttings, root suckering, and layering.  It
also sprouts from the base when damaged [42,43].

Pale wolfberry seeds are probably dispersed by birds and other animals,
like those of other wolfberry species [28].

Three pale wolfberry seedlings established at a Rock Valley, Nevada, site
in 1972, but none survived to the following year [2].

Good seed crops are produced by wolfberry species almost every year.
After extraction, seeds should be dried and stored in sealed containers
at 41 degrees Fahrenheit (5 deg C), or stratified in moist sand.
Stratified seeds of other wolfberry species maintain good viability for
6 months.  Dormancy in wolfberry seeds is variable.  Some wolfberry
species seeds germinate well without pretreatment, while germination of
others is improved by stratification.  Seeds can be sown in the fall as
soon as the fruits ripen, or stratified seed can be sown in the spring
and covered lightly with about 0.25-inch (0.64-cm) of soil.
Two-year-old seedlings may be outplanted [36].


SITE CHARACTERISTICS : 
Pale wolfberry is found on plains and flats, along washes and arroyos,
on dry rocky hills, mesas, and bajadas, and on rocky slopes and canyons
of hills and mountains [18,19,29,23,31,33,46].  It is tolerant of saline
soils [45].

In the Mohave Desert at Rock Valley, Nevada, pale wolfberry occurs in
desert scrub vegetation on sites at 3,300 feet (1,000 m) elevation with
soils derived from calcareous alluvium.  The soil surface is
well-developed desert pavement underlain by a caliche layer that
prevents root penetration [2,3,40].

Pale wolfberry mostly occurs at the following elevations:

                      feet                   meters
_____________________________________________________________________
Arizona            3,500-7,000           1,060-2,120 [23]
California         below 2,500             below 757 [31]
                   below 3,960           below 1,200 [20]
Colorado           5,000-7,000           1,500-2,120 [18]
Texas              3,000-7,000             900-2,120 [43]
Trans-Pecos, TX      400-5,200             120-1,575 [33]
Utah               3,300-6,170           1,000-1,870 [47]


SUCCESSIONAL STATUS : 
Little information is available on the successional status of pale
wolfberry.  It occurs in mid-seral and late seral communities of the
upper Rio Puerco watershed in New Mexico that are dominated by oneseed
juniper (Juniperus monosperma), broom snakeweed (Gutierrezia sarothrae),
or alkali sacaton (Sporobolus airoides) [14].


SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT : 
Pale wolfberry flowers from February to May or June throughout its
range [23,31,33,43].  In the Mohave Desert pale wolfberry is one of the
first plants to break dormancy, and does so when night temperatures are
around freezing and maximum air temperatures average 60 degrees
Fahrenheit (15 deg C) [1,3,38].  It is also one of the first species to
shed its leaves when air and soil temperatures increase above 86 degrees
Fahrenheit (30 deg C).  Pale wolfberry may produce leaf and flower buds
after summer and fall rains [1,3].  The following dates were recorded
for phenological development of pale wolfberry at Rock Valley, Nevada,
over an 8-year period [38]:

Year     first leaf     first flower     first fruit
___________________________________________________________________
1968      Feb. 2          Mar. 3           April 4
1969      Feb. 14         April 2          April 18
1970      Feb. 16         April 13         April 20
1971      Jan. 25         Mar. 12           none
1972      Feb. 18         Mar. 7           Mar. 15
1973      Feb. 20         Mar. 13          Mar. 22
1974      Feb. 4          Mar. 26          April 2
1975      Jan. 24         Mar. 18          April 2
1976      Mar. 4          April 2          April 16  

Related categories for Species: Lycium pallidum | Pale Wolfberry