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Lycium ruthenicum
Also called Black Wolfberry, Russian Box Thorn, Goji Nero
A spiny, drought-tolerant desert shrub native to Central Asia and northwest China, grown for its small, dark purple to black berries. It thrives in full sun and well-drained, even salty or sandy soil, and needs very little water.
Lycium ruthenicum (Chinese: 黑果枸杞; pinyin: hei guo gou qi), is a flowering plant commonly known as Russian box thorn in the West. It is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family which can be found in Central Asia, southern part of Russia, throughout Northwest China, Northern India and Pakistan. Also commonly known as black fruit wolfberry, siyah goji, black goji and kaokee.
In India, it grows in Nubra Valley where it is used by native people to cure blindness in camels. In Central Asia and Northwest China the species grows on elevation of 400–3,000 metres (1,300–9,800 ft) in saline deserts, sands and roadsides.
Saracha quitensis · Kraal honeythorn · Water jacket · Australian Boxthorn · Matrimony vine · Berlandier's wolfberry · Baja desert-thorn · California desert-thorn · Carolina desert-thorn · Chinese desert-thorn · Small-leaved honeythorn · Peach thorn
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Lycium ruthenicum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
