Lycium chinense is one of two species of boxthornshrub in the family Solanaceae. Along with Lycium barbarum, it produces the goji berry ("wolfberry"). Two varieties are recognized,[3]L. chinense var. chinense and L. chinense var. potaninii. It is also known as Chinese boxthorn, Chinese matrimony-vine, Chinese teaplant, Chinese wolfberry, wolfberry,[4] and Chinese desert-thorn.[5]
Description
Wolfberry species are deciduouswoody shrubs, growing 1–3 metres (3 ft 3 in – 9 ft 10 in) high, somewhat shorter than L. barbarum. The stems are highly branched. Branches are pale gray, slender, curved or pendulous, with thorns 0.5–2 centimetres (0.20–0.79 in) long.[3]
Leaves
Lycium chinense leaves form on the shoot either solitary in an alternating arrangement or in bundles of 2 to 4. Their shape may be ovate, rombic, lanceolate, or linear-lanceolate, usually 1.5–5 centimetres (0.59–1.97 in) long and 0.5–2.5 centimetres (0.20–0.98 in) wide (but up to 10 centimetres (3.9 in) long and 4 centimetres (1.6 in) wide in cultivated plants).[3]
Flowers
The flowers grow in groups of one to three in the leaf axils, with pedicels 1–2 centimetres (0.39–0.79 in) long.[3] The bell-shaped or tubular calyx (eventually ruptured by the growing berry) splits halfway into short, triangular, densely ciliate lobes. The corollae is a tube that splits into lavender or light purple petals, 9–14 mm (0.35–0.55 in) wide with five or six lobes longer than the tube, with short hairs at the edge. The stamens are structured with filaments longer than the anthers, slightly shorter or longer than the corolla, with a villous ring slightly above the base and the adjacent corolla tube.[3] The anthers are longitudinally dehiscent.
Fruit and seeds
Lycium chinense produces a bright orange-red berry, whose shape is ovoid or oblong, 7–15 millimetres (0.28–0.59 in) long and 5 to 8 mm wide (but up to 22 millimetres (0.87 in) long and 10 millimetres (0.39 in) wide in cultivation).[3] It contains compressed yellow seeds, from 2.5 to 3 mm wide, with a curved embryo; their number varies widely based on cultivar and fruit size, from 10 to 60. The berries ripen from July to October in the Northern Hemisphere.
Lycium chinense can be distinguished from the very similar Lycium barbarum by morphological traits of the flowers. The corolla tubes of barbarum are significantly longer than the lobes, and the calyx of chinense usually has more than two lobes whereas barbarum has just two.[citation needed]
Dozens of secondary metabolites have been isolated and identified from the roots, root bark, and leaves, including cyclic peptides, alkaloids, and flavonoids.[7]Citric acid is the major nonvolatile organic acid in the leaves followed by oxalic acid.[7]
^USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Lycium chinense". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
^Constantinescu, O. (1991). "An annotated list of Peronospora names". Thunbergia. 15.