Lycium barbarum Big Lifeberry

Lycium barbarum 'Big Lifeberry' is a deciduous bush reaching 2 m (6.6 ft) in height. This productive variety is extremely easy to grow. It produces small, purple flowers followed by large, elongated, sweet and tangy red berries. These berries have been known for their nutritional properties for millennia and are exceptionally rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Plant in autumn or spring, harvest from August.

Goji (Lycium barbarum) belongs to the Solanaceae family, just like tomatoes and potatoes. It is a deciduous bush with a controversial origin. It was long considered to come from China, but recent research has shown that it could be native to the Mediterranean basin, which tends to be proven by the species name 'barbarum', the Barbaria, which was assimilated during Linnaeus' time to North Africa.

The Common Lycium is a woody bush, with an upright, highly branched and sprawling habit, reaching a height of 1.5 m to 3 m (4.9 ft to 9.8 ft) at maturity, depending on growing conditions. Its growth is moderately fast. Its numerous branches are flexible and drooping, equipped with a few long sharp spines. The foliage is deciduous, thick, leathery, and quite vivid green in juvenile leaves before evolving to a greyish-green colour in mature leaves. The latter, of modest size, are elliptical and elongated, wider towards the base, and measure 2 cm to 3 cm (0.8 in to 1.2 in) in length and 6 mm (0.2 in) in width. The nectar-rich flowering takes place from June to July, in the form of small flowers, 10 mm (0.4 in) in diameter, tubular, hermaphrodite, campanulate and star-shaped, and violet in colour for this variety. It is followed by the formation of ovoid berries, initially green then orange-red at maturity, about 18 mm (0.7 in) in length. These berries are edible when ripe: it is preferable to consume fully ripe berries, when the solanine content has decreased in the pulp. The fruits contain about twenty small seeds. The rooting of this bush is shallow.

This small fruit is rich in carbohydrates and proteins, and low in lipids. It is very rich in calcium, potassium, iron, selenium, vitamins E, B2, beta-carotene (which gives it its orange colour), and vitamin C (which makes iron particularly assimilable by our body). Lycium pulp has been the subject of numerous studies in recent years, which tend to prove that it has antioxidant abilities.

Goji integrates perfectly into an ornamental garden. With its long branches, it can easily be trained on a trellis. It is a beautiful bush that can be included in a countryside hedge, along with currants and flowering shrubs, or trained with thornless garden blackberries. Resistant to drought and very hardy, it adapts to the climate and can be planted anywhere. It will simply be more productive in rich and moist soil.

Lyciums were used in Roman and Greek pharmacopoeias. They fell into oblivion, then reappeared in the late 1990s in the form of 'Goji berries', when China opened up to the world and experienced rapid development.