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 horridum is a South African indigenous species found in the Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West and Western Cape Provinces. It forms a stiffly branched thorny shrub up to 2 meters tall. It has tufted leaves and tubular white & purple flowers which are followed by red berries.