Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Solanales > Solanaceae > Lycium > Lycium chinense

Lycium chinense (Chinese desert-thorn)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Lycium chinense is one of two species of boxthorn in the family Solanaceae from which the goji berry or wolfberry is harvested, the other being Lycium barbarum. Two varieties are recognized, L. chinense var. chinense and L. chinense var. potaninii. It is also known as Chinese boxthorn, Chinese matrimony-vine, Chinese teaplant, Chinese wolfberry, wolfberry, and Chinese desert-thorn. The plant is used in traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of nightsweats, pneumonia, cough, hematemesis, inflammation, and diabetes mellitus.
View Wikipedia Record: Lycium chinense

Infraspecies

Lycium chinense var. potaninii

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Medium
Edible [2]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [2]  Hermaphrodite
Hazards [2]  Some caution should be exercised with this species, particularly with regard to its edible leaves, since it belongs to a family that often contains toxins. However, use of the leaves is well documented and fairly widespread in some areas.
Leaf Type [2]  Deciduous
Lifespan [3]  Perennial
Pollinators [2]  Bees
Structure [2]  Shrub
Usage [2]  Can be grown as an informal hedge, succeeding in maritime exposure; Plants have an extensive root system and can be planted to stabilize banks;
Height [2]  8.2 feet (2.5 m)
Width [2]  6.56 feet (2 m)
Light Preference [4]  Mostly Sunny
Soil Acidity [4]  Neutral
Soil Fertility [4]  Mostly Infertile
Soil Moisture [4]  Moist
View Plants For A Future Record : Lycium chinense

Protected Areas

Predators

Nipaecoccus lycii[5]
Parlatoria pergandii (black parlatoria scale)[5]
Peliococcus lycicola[5]
Phomopsis importata[6]

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Erysiphe mougeotii[6]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 3PLANTATT - Attributes of British and Irish Plants: Status, Size, Life History, Geography and Habitats, M. O. Hill, C. D. Preston & D. B. Roy, Biological Records Centre, NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (2004)
♦ 4ECOFACT 2a Technical Annex - Ellenberg’s indicator values for British Plants, M O Hill, J O Mountford, D B Roy & R G H Bunce (1999)
♦ 5Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 6Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0