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Lycium barbarum is a shrub native to China, with present-day range across Asia and southeast Europe. It is one of two species of boxthorn in the family Solanaceae from which the goji berry or wolfberry is harvested, the other being Lycium chinense. Common names of the plant in English include Chinese wolfberry, Chinese boxthorn, Himalayan goji, Tibetan goji, mede berry, barbary matrimony vine, red medlar or matrimony vine. In the United Kingdom it is also known as Duke of Argyll’s tea tree or Duke of Argyll’s tea plant, after Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll who introduced it in the country in the 1730s. The plant is called Murali in India, and dretsherma (འདྲི་ཚིར་མ།, “ghost thorn“) in Tibetan. The shrub is an important commercial crop in northern China, especially in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Its Chinese name is Ningxia gǒuqǐ (宁夏枸杞 | 寧夏枸杞). It is also grown in Tibet, Mongolia, and more recently in many other countries of the world. Lycium barbarum is a deciduous woody shrub, growing 1–3 metres (3 ft 3 in – 9 ft 10 in) high. The shrub has weak arching branches, and the side branches are often reduced to short leafless spines. L. barbarum leaves form on the shoot either in an alternating arrangement, or in bundles of up to three. Each leaf is green, scarcely fleshy when fresh, usually lanceolate (spearhead-shaped), sometimes with rounded tips. Clustered leaves are up to 25 mm long; the single alternate leaves are up to 55 mm long. The flowers grow in groups of one to three in the leaf axils, with pedicels 6–15 mm long. The calyx, eventually ruptured by the growing berry, is a whitish tube crowned by five or six radial triangular sepals, shorter than the tube, 10–12 mm long and 3–4 mm wide, sometimes 2–lipped, strongly curved. The sepals are whitish on the lower side (facing towards the branch) and deep mauve on the top side. Each flower has five stamens, exserted for 3–8 mm, with stalks longer than the anthers. The pistil is 8–11.5 mm long. The anthers are longitudinally dehiscent. The fruit of L. barbarum, the main variety of goji berry, is a bright orange-red, ellipsoid berry 1–2 cm (– in) in diameter. The fruiting calyx is split deeply once or twice. The number of seeds in each berry varies widely based on cultivar and fruit size, ranging from 10 to 60. The seeds are about 2 mm long, 1 mm wide, yellowish, compressed with a curved embryo. The plants are self-pollinating, but may be cross pollinated by insects. The species is dispersed into natural areas by birds and other animals that eat its fruit. In the Northern Hemisphere, flowering occurs from June through September and berry maturation from August to October, depending on the latitude, altitude, and climate. Where frost does not occur fruiting is continuous and plants do not lose their leaves. Lycium barbarum has been cultivated in China, along the fertile aggradational floodplains of the Yellow River, for more than 600 years. It is still extensively cultivated in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of north-central China, centered in Zhongning County, totaling 200,000 acres as of 2005, The region produced 13,000 tons of fruit in 2001, accounting for 42% of the nation’s total production of goji berries. The plant is also cultivated in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of western China, The berries of L. barbarum are the only therapeutic grade (“superior-grade“) kinds of wolfberries used by practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine. As Ningxia’s borders merge with three deserts, L. barbarum is also planted to control erosion and reclaim irrigable soils from desertification. Lycium barbarum has been used since the 18th century in the United Kingdom for hedging, especially in coastal districts. Its red berries are attractive to a wide variety of British birds. The plant continues to grow wild in UK hedgerows. On 15 January 2003, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs launched a project to improve the regulations protecting traditional countryside hedgerows, and specifically mentioned Duke of Argyll’s Tea Tree as one of the species to be found growing in hedges located in Suffolk Sandlings, Hadleigh, Bawdsey, near Ipswich, and Walberswick. Importation of mature Lycium barbarum plants into the United Kingdom from most countries outside Europe is illegal, due to the possibility they could be vectors of diseases attacking Solanaceae crops, such as potato or tomato. Lycium barbarum has become a high demand plant in the United States. Nearly all major nursery catalogs now carry plants and there are many suppliers found on various web sites. There are a number of varieties available, ranging from leaf producing plants to fruit producing varieties. Most listed plants are hardy zones 5-9. One variety, Phoenix Tears is hardy zones 3-10. This variety produces fruit year round in warmer climates. Berries and leaves produced in the United States are probably more pestici
