Lycium barbarum Instant Success

Goji (Lycium barbarum) Instant Success® is a deciduous bush, dense, reaching a height and width of 1.50m (4ft 11in). Easy to grow, this variety offers small purple flowers followed by the formation of red-orange, sweet and tangy oval berries, from the first year after planting. These berries have nutritional properties known for millennia and are exceptionally rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Plant in autumn or spring, harvest in August.

Goji (Lycium barbarum) belongs to the Solanaceae family, just like tomatoes and potatoes. It is a deciduous bush with a controversial origin. It has long been considered to come from China, but recent research has shown that it could be native to the Mediterranean basin, which is evidenced by the species name 'barbarum', Barbaria, which was assimilated in Linnaeus' time to North Africa. The common Lycium is a woody bush, showing an upright, very spreading, ramified habit, reaching 1.50 to  3m (4ft 11in to 9ft 10in) in height at maturity, depending on growing conditions. The 'Instant Success' variety, more compact, is limited to 1.5m (4ft 11in) in height. Its growth is moderately fast. The numerous branches are flexible and trailing, and equipped with a few long sharp spines. The foliage is deciduous, thick, leathery, fairly bright green in juvenile leaves, evolving to greyish-green in mature leaves. The latter, of modest size, are elliptical and elongated, wider towards the base, and measure 2 to 3cm (0.8 to 1.2in) in length and 6mm (0.2in) in width. The flowering, very honey and nectariferous, takes place from June to July, in the form of small flowers, 10mm (0.4in) in diameter, tubular, bell-shaped and star-shaped, hermaphrodite, violet in colour for this variety. It is followed by the formation of ovoid berries, first green and then orange at ripeness, about 18mm (0.7in) in length. These berries are edible when ripe: it is preferable to consume dried berries, picked when fully ripe, when the solanine content has decreased in the pulp. The fruits contain about twenty small seeds. The rooting of this bush is superficial.

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

Goji blends perfectly into the ornamental garden. With its long branches, it can easily be trained against a support. It is a beautiful bush that can be included in a country hedge, along with currants and flowering shrubs, or trained with thornless blackberries. Resistant to drought and very hardy, Goji will adapt to the climate and can be planted anywhere in France, from north to south. It will simply be more productive in a rich and moist soil.

In France, there are three species of Lycium growing in the wild: Lycium europeanum, Lycium chinense, and our Lycium barbarum. Two of them are native to southern Europe and L. chinense has been introduced from eastern Asia. The latter has become naturalized in many places. Lyciums were used in Roman and Greek pharmacopoeias, they fell into oblivion, then reappeared with us, in the form of 'Goji berries', in the late 90s, when China was opening up to the world and experiencing rapid development.