New “Goji Berry” (Lycium fruit) images
November 24th, 2009We have new photo galleries of “goji” — the fruits of Lycium chinense (shot in the Oriental Herb Garden at the American Botanical Council, created in association with the Academy of Oriental Medicine in Austin) and Lycium barbarum. Go into any health or natural food store these days and you will find goji berries in just about everything—goji juice, goji-laced chocolate bars, whole dried goji berries ready to replace your raisins. Better known in pre-marketing hype days, as Lycium, Chinese wolfberry, Chinese boxthorn, or Chinese matrimony vine, the dried fruits proliferating in the market are either from Lycium chinense or Lycium barbarum. L. chinense has wide distribution in East Asia, whereas L. barbarum is found primarily in the central Chinese Province of Ningxia. Both species are widely naturalized outside of China. Lycium chinense is found in at least fifteen states east of the Mississippi and five states west of the Mississippi. It grows as a weed at the edge of my yard, and perhaps yours as well. Lycium barbarum is found in almost the entire continental U.S. (except Nevada) and half of Canada. The dried fruits are a common food item throughout eastern Asia and the Middle East, where barrels of the inexpensive dried fruits are a staple in every market. When one sees the price and availability in foreign lands, it’s easy to shudder at the price charged for the bright red Asian equivalent of raisins in the American market. The name “goji” was never used for the plant or its fruit until it was popularized in the American market in the past decade. “Goji” is a phonetic twist on the Chinese name for the fruits “Guo qi zi“. The fruits were not commonly called “berries” either. In the American Herbal Products Association’s book Herbs of Commerce (2000), a list of more than 1,600 herbs found in the American market with their scientific names, common name synonyms, and “standard common name,” Lycium barbarum and Lycium chinense are both listed under the standard common name “Lycium”.