Family: Solanaceae

High Risk Traits:

• Broad climate suitability
  
• Able to grow in high elevation, tropical climates
  
• Widely naturalized (but no evidence in Hawaiian Islands to date)
  
• A weedy shrub, and potential environmental weed in Australia
  
• Other Lycium species are invasive
  
• Thorny branches
  
• Toxic to animals
  
• Tolerates many soil types
  
• Reproduces by seeds and vegetatively by suckers
  
• Reaches maturity in 2 years
  
• Seeds dispersed by birds, and both intentionally and accidentally by human activities
  
• Tolerates frequent pruning and able to resprout after cutting

Low Risk Traits:

• May only be a threat to higher elevations of tropical Pacific islands
  
• Although weedy and invasive, valued in many locations for its edible fruit and medicinal uses
  
• Provides fodder for livestock (palatable despite reports of toxicity)
  
• Prefers full sun, potentially limiting spread into dense, intact forests
  
• Primarily outcrossing (although limited self-fertilization may be possible)
  
• Herbicides may provide effective control