Lycium cinereumThunb.

small honeythornsmall-leaved honeythorn

WFO wfo-0001022802 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Lycium cinereum, photographed by Mahomed Desai
fig. a Mahomed Desai, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-06-24 / obs. 139258692
Lycium cinereum, photographed by melda
fig. b melda, CC0 1.0 / obs. 106143055
Lycium cinereum, photographed by Mahomed Desai
fig. c Mahomed Desai, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 75719263
Lycium cinereum, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. d Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 63191014
Lycium cinereum, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. e Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 26301317
Lycium cinereum, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. f Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 18974172
Lycium cinereum, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. g Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 16027508
Lycium cinereum, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. h Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 16008600

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 7 botanical countries

Regions where Lycium cinereum is native: Botswana, Cape Provinces, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Namibia, Northern Provinces BotswanaCape ProvincesFree StateKwaZulu-NatalLesothoNamibiaNorthern Provinces
Native distribution of Lycium cinereum, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Botswana BOT AFRICA
Cape Provinces CPP
Free State OFS
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Lesotho LES
Namibia NAM
Northern Provinces TVL

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 13 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Acokanthera lycioides (Licht. ex Roem. & Schult.) G.Don
  • Acokanthera pubescens (Licht. ex Roem. & Schult.) G.Don
  • Cestrum lycioides Licht. ex Roem. & Schult.
  • Cestrum pubescens Licht. ex Roem. & Schult.
  • Lycium caespitosum Dinter & Dammer
  • Lycium cinereum subsp. normale A.Terracc.
  • Lycium engleri Dammer
  • Lycium prunus-spinosa Dunal
  • Lycium rigidum var. roridum (Miers) A.Terracc.
  • Lycium roridum Miers
  • Lycium seineri Dammer
  • Lycium tenue subsp. prunus-spinosa (Dunal) A.Terracc.
  • Lycium woodii Dammer

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.