Lycium is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. Lycium are shrubs, often thorny, growing 1 to 4 meters tall. The leaves are small, narrow, and fleshy, and are alternately arranged, sometimes in fascicles. Flowers are solitary or borne in clusters. The funnel-shaped or bell-shaped corolla is white, green, or purple in colour. The fruit is a two-chambered, usually fleshy and juicy berry which can be red, orange, yellow, or black. It may have few seeds or many. Most Lycium have fleshy, red berries with over 10 seeds, but a few American taxa have hard fruits with two seeds. While most Lycium are monoecious, producing bisexual flowers with functional male and female parts, some species are gynodioecious, with some individuals bearing bisexual flowers and some producing functionally female flowers.

Lycium afrum commonly known as Kraal Honey Thorn in English and Kraalkriekdoring in Afrikaans is a shrub in the potato family, Solanaceae. The species is native to the Cape Province in South Africa. Lycium afrum is a moderate-sized shrub that may grow as high as 3 meters and is formidably armed with straight, woody thorns. Its leaves are leathery and tufted on short shoots. It bears tubular purple flowers 12 to 20 millimetres long, with flared petals about one quarter the length of the tube. The fruit is a sub-spherical berry, red when ripe, eaten by birds. It is not clear how safe it is to eat the fruit, though berries of some species of Lycium certainly are eaten with impunity by humans and animals.