PLANT: Annual herbs, to 70 cm tall, without tubers or stolons, abundantly armed on herbage and calyx with straight, straw-colored prickles, these sometimes more than 1 cm long on fruiting calyces; copiously stellate-pubescent throughout (also with occasional simple hairs), the cauline stellae sessile or sometimes on a stalk up to 1 mm long. LEAVES: alternate, (bi-)pinnatifid to pinnatisect near the base, the lobes irregular in shape with rounded or obtuse apices; blades elliptic to broadly ovate in outline, to ca. 12 cm long, submembranous to subcoriaceous, stellate-pubescent on both surfaces, prickly along principal veins, the veins impressed above; petioles to ca. 8 cm long, usually ca. 2/3 the length of the blade. I INFLORESCENCE: raceme-like monochasial cymes, to ca. 15 cm long; peduncles 1–4 cm long. FLOWERS: somewhat zygomorphic (Fig. 3D); pedicel to ca. 1 cm long; calyx 5–12 mm long, the lobes usually at least 2 times as long as the tube (sometimes much longer); corolla rotate, yellow, 15–25 mm in diam., stellate-pubescent on the outer surface, loosely folded between the lobes, the two lower lobes somewhat larger and curving outward; stamens unequal; anthers ca. 2 times longer than filaments, the lowermost anther greater than 1 cm long, red-purple tinged, curved, the 4 uppermost anthers 6–8 mm long, yellow, straight; style curved, equal to or exceeding the long anther. FRUITS: 9–12 mm in diam., erect, closely invested by the densely prickly, accrescent tube of the calyx; seeds flattened, ovoid, dark brown, alveolate. NOTES: A common weed of overgrazed pastures and roadsides: all cos. except La Paz, Yuma (Fig. 2F); 250–2250 m (800–7400 ft); Jun–Sep; all states except FL; throughout Mex. and s Can. REFERENCES: Chiang, F. and L.R. Landrum. Vascular Plants of Arizona: Solanaceae Part Three: Lycium. CANOTIA 5 (1): 17–26, 2009.