There is a wonderful little red berry that grows all over the world, and people in different places call it by different names. Many English-speaking people call it Wolfberry, and today even more English speakers call it Goji Berry. But in reality it is the same.
As we all know, science assigns two Latin names to each botanical organism, a genus and a species. Two plants that are even slightly different from each other have different species names. Therefore, if two plants have the same genus and the same species name, they are the same plant. People can call them by different names, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are actually the same.
The Goji / Wolfberry berry plant, whose genus is Lycium, has two closely related species. One species is known as Barbarum and the other is Chinensis. Both species grow in many places on earth.
Since people in different countries tend to speak different languages, it is not surprising that Chinese and Tibetans do not call these berries wolfberries. China has many dialects. The plant is often called gǒuqǐ and the berries are called gǒuqǐzi (zi means “berry”). “Goji” is a simplified pronunciation of gǒuqǐ.
A similar word can be found in other languages. For example, in Korea the berry is called gugija and in Thailand it is known as găo gè. The Tibetan has many names for the berries, including qouki, qou ki ji, quak qou, kew ji, and kew ki. In Japanese, the plant is called kuko and the fruit is known as kuko no mi or kuko no kajitsu.
Around 1973, the word “Goji” first began to be used in English so that English speakers could have a word for this berry that was similar to these Asian words. Since then, the word “Goji” has been exploited by many merchants, as the berries have appeared in more and more health food stores in the United States. The new word “Goji” is now used quite frequently.
It is not very clear where the word “goji berry” originated. One theory is that it comes from the place name “Lycia”, the old name for Anatolia, in Turkey, and “Lycia” can be heard in the name Lycium Barbarum. “Barbarum” means that the goji berry plant could have come from elsewhere, like China, originally.
But this does not explain why it has the word “wolf”. Therefore, another possibility is that Lycium Barbarum comes from the Greek word “Lycos” or Wolf. Wolves eat berries and other fruits to get the fiber they need in their diets. They also eat tomatoes, whose Latin name means “wolf peach” (Solanum lycopersicum). The word “lycos”, or wolf, can be seen in Latin.
The genus Tomato (Solanum) contains another species, lycocarpum, which translates as Wolf Apple. This medium-sized yellow tomato is unfamiliar to many of us because it grows in South America. South American wolves eat them! It is not the same plant as the tomato we are used to in North America. What is my point I’m getting to that …
Goji berries and Wolfberries belong to the Nightshade (Solanaceae) family, and so do tomatoes! Solanaceae are an important source of food and spices. Eggplant species include potatoes, eggplants, tomatoes, bell peppers, chili peppers (bell pepper), belladonna (belladonna), datura (crimson herb), tobacco, mandrake, goji berry, and many more.
Many of the species in this important food family are used in the making of herbal medicines by native peoples around the world. Some of them have psychoactive properties. Goji berries are legendary as a medicinal plant and have been used as such for many centuries in many countries.
Goji berries and goji berries have many other names such as box hawthorn, Duke of Argyll’s tea tree, marriage vine, Bocksdorn, Cambronera, Chinese wolfberry, and red medlar.
The point here is that Lycium Barbarum and Lycium Chinensis are two completely different species, two completely different plants. Many people proclaim different names for them. They claim, for example, that “Lycium Eleagnus Barbarum Tibetan” is the TRUE Gogi berry of the Himalayas, although it does not actually exist as a species.
There is no doubt that these two species have different medicinal and nutritional properties, BECAUSE they are different species. In fact, it is not only that different species are different from each other, it is also true that all VARIETIES of any species are somewhat different chemically and therefore nutritionally.
In some mountainous areas of Tibet and northern China there is what is commonly known as the “Goji Belt”, a fertile high-altitude region where Goji plants are cultivated and grown wild. The “highest quality” Goji berries are produced in the best location and climate, which happens to be this Goji belt. This is due to the purity of the water and the mineral-rich soil that descends from the high mountains.
The political struggle that is raging between Tibet and China is well known. There are also Tibetan / Chinese political conflicts over what defines a Goji berry. From a Western perspective, this is just confusing.
Furthermore, the name Tibet has an unmistakable mystique. So it’s easy for Western marketers to capitalize on it, asserting the superiority of TIBETAN Goji berries over all others. But, as we have shown, from a scientific perspective, “Tibetan” Goji berries do not exist.
Tibet, a more vertical than horizontal country, mostly dry, infertile and arid, with few roads between the highest mountains in the world, is not famous for agriculture. It is adjacent to China. Political boundaries don’t really matter to the land or the Goji plants; Instead, as mentioned, soil and climate are the important factors when growing goji and goji berries.
The highest quality berries have the highest levels of glyconutrients and are grown in Ningxia and Xinjiang provinces in China, right in the Goji belt. These areas have exceptional growing seasons, unusually alkaline soil, adequate rainfall, and extreme temperature fluctuations from 102 to -16 degrees F.
The Goji belt produces four grades of Goji berries: super, king, special and grade A. The largest berries are “super”, the second largest are “king”, and so on. You can find the marketers who advertise their berries as the largest, but they are still all from the same berry, Lycium Barbarum. They are that unless, of course, they are Lycium Chinensis.
Wolfberries, Gojis, they are wonderful. It’s easy for politicians and marketers to confuse and blow smoke around a bushel of Goji berries or Goji juice. However, nothing clouds the core fact that this unique little berry is the world’s greatest nutritional powerhouse!
