No mistaking this thorny, leafless 8-foot tall shrub with its tangle of stout, spine-tipped twigs. Scale-like leaves fall early leaving the smooth, yellowish-green branches to photosynthesize. Note that the small flowers along the thorny twigs have 4 greenish-white petals. The thicket-forming mass of interlacing branches provides excellent wildlife cover, and birds and small mammals devour the clusters of black berries.

FLOWERS: June–August. Rounded clusters have small, greenish-white to cream flowers with 4 tiny sepals, 4 oval petals 1/8 inch long (3 mm). Berries red, turning black, 3/16 inch diameter (5 mm).

LEAVES: Early deciduous, scale-like, 1/16 inch long (2 mm). Green twigs tipped with thorns 3/4–2 3/8 inches long (2–6 cm), young thorns densely short-hairy.

HABITAT: Dry sandy, gravelly soils, desert flats, gullies, hills; desert grasslands and scrub.

ELEVATION: 3,200–5,600 feet (975–1708 m).

RANGE: AZ, CA, NM, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Three varieties have slightly different flower and thorn characteristics. NM and the Chihuahua Desert have Koeberlinia spinosa var. wivaggii; var. spinosa occurs in Texas and Mexico, var. tenuispina in the Sonora Desert of Arizona, California, Mexico (Flora NM III, Allred).

NM COUNTIES: Southern NM in low-elevation, desert habitats: Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Hidalgo, Lea, Luna, Otero, Sierra, Socorro