A slender, thorny, small shrub with whitish-gray-to-redish branches, and linear, alternate, clustered leaves. Wolfberry is a summer deciduous plant, losing its leaves from April to September, it is one of the few shrubs to have leaves during winter. Wolfberry is a common component in mixed-brush chaparral communities on various soil types, ranging from gravelly, rocky, limestone hills to clay flats. It prefers heavier, sandy loams with good drainage, and is often associated with mesquite and prickly pear cactus.