Goji varieties and geographic distribution

Goji is formally called wolfberry, which include more than 80 varieties growing around the world. Wolfberry belongs to Solanacea family that also include the tomato, potato, chili peper and tobacco, etc. For human medicinal and dietary consumption, goji (or wolfberry) ususally refers to Lycium barbarum (also called Zhongning goji or Ningxia goji), a variety mainly growing in Ningxia, China. There are other important varieties of L. Chinense and L. Dasystemum on the market, however Zhongning goji is considered to have the best clinic effect in Chinese herb medicine, according to the Chinese Pharmacopoeia stipulated in 1963.

The chart below illustrate goji's varieties and geographic distribution:

Comment on native goji variety in North America:

Official name: Lycium pallidum Miers. With a common name of pale wolfberry or pale materimony vine, it is a evergreen (Lycium barbarum is deciduous) thorny plant grows up to 6 feet. Pale wolfberry is distributed across desert flats, slopes, mesas throughout the southwestern states including Arizona, S. Texas, S. California, Mexico. American natives used to use its bark, root and berries to treat multiple illness. Pale wolfberry differs from L. barbarum in -

Leaves: pale wolfberry leaves are obovate, succlent, smaller in size and rounder in shape

Flowers: similar to L. barbarum in color and shape, but much smaller in size

Berries: round in shape

Taste of berries: it is reported pale wolfberries have bitterness taste. Native Americans in northern Arizona mixed berries with saline clay to reduce bitterness. This mixture was called 'food clay' by the Navajo 

Medicinal use: Native Americans use root as poultice for toothache and also to treat chickenpox.  

As goji (L. barbarum) won more popularity, some people started to grow pale wolfberries. One thing beyond most people's expectation is the berries are very bitter, hardly edible without further processing. This led some people to believe goji taste bad. Actually goji (L. barbarum) taste very good fresh or dried. Fresh berries are sweet and juicy and dried berries are sweet and a little sour. Unlike Lycium barbarum growing in China, native pale wolfberry in southern states have not been fully studied and exploited in medicinal value.

References: 1.Peterson Field Guides to Western Medicinal Plants and Herbs

                  2. Texas Native Plants Database