Species
+

Lycium barbarum L.

Barbary matrimony vine, Barbary matrimony-vine, Chinese boxthorn, Chinese wolfberry

Climate known 63 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Lycium barbarum is a shrub native to China, with present-day range across Asia and southeast Europe. It is one of two species of boxthorn in the family Solanaceae from which the goji berry or wolfberry is harvested, the other being Lycium chinense.

Text from Wikipedia, “Lycium barbarum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Lycium

Lycium is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. The genus has a disjunct distribution around the globe, with species occurring on most continents in temperate and subtropical regions. South America has the most species, followed by North America and southern Africa. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Lycium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Solanaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
China South-Central, Inner Mongolia, China North-Central +2
Wild records
13 in range· 5 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Jul, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
229mm/yr
5 wet months · peak Aug 52 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–44DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 229 mm a year, wettest August at 52 mm, driest December at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 44 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -15.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Boberella halimifolia (Mill.) E.H.L.Krause; Jasminoides flaccidum Moench; Lycium afrum Rchb.; Lycium afrum Rchb. ex Webb & Berthel.; Lycium barbarum var. aurantiacum K.F.Ching and 19 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (163 mm of 229 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.3 °C against a yearly mean of 9.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 229 mm a year, wettest August at 52 mm, driest December at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

229 mm a year at the habitat, 163 mm of it June to September. Wettest month August at 52 mm, driest December at 1 mm; 4 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 186 mm to 364 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 44 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 44 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -15.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -15.1 °C, the absolute minimum -21.1 °C, about 156 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -12.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells -13.8 °C to -10.9 °C), warmest day 29.2 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -15.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 43 to 52% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 1 °C in Jan to 29 °C in Jul; mean night from -12 °C in Jan to 18 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 229 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 12 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -21.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost31.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-21.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075mm rainDLI 17–44RH 43–52 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 12 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C1 / -3–14 / 1–511 / 8–1218 / 14–1924 / 20–2528 / 24–2929 / 25–3127 / 24–2922 / 19–2416 / 13–178 / 5–92 / -2–3
Night °C-12 / -14–-11-9 / -10–-7-3 / -5–-23 / -0–410 / 6–1115 / 12–1618 / 15–1916 / 13–1711 / 7–124 / 1–5-4 / -6–-3-9 / -12–-9
Rain mm2 / 2–33 / 2–46 / 4–1212 / 7–2125 / 20–4135 / 25–5346 / 37–7352 / 42–7530 / 24–4914 / 9–193 / 2–51 / 1–3
DLI20 / 19–2126 / 25–2733 / 32–3439 / 38–3942 / 40–4344 / 41–4442 / 39–4237 / 35–3831 / 28–3225 / 24–2620 / 19–2117 / 16–19
RH %50 / 47–5447 / 44–5045 / 43–4743 / 39–4744 / 41–4946 / 44–5250 / 48–5452 / 50–5651 / 49–5750 / 46–5549 / 46–5149 / 47–53

Each figure is the median across the 12 grid cells holding the 13 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1086:5701 (35.675, 105.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -21.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -15.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 12 distinct grid cells holding the 13 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1086:5701 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 35.50_105.000, lapse-corrected -152 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1828 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, Inner Mongolia, China North-Central, Qinghai, Xinjiang· introduced: Denmark, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, South European Russia, Ukraine, Mauritius, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, East Aegean Is., Lebanon-Syria, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Korea, Nepal, Vietnam, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Argentina South
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker38.5, 106.22 · in the densest population, 7 records (54% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 13 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 5 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 30 km away. 1685 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 13 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Lycium barbarumLycium barbarumLycium barbarumLycium barbarumLycium barbarumLycium barbarumLycium barbarumLycium barbarum

Photographs: (c) SteveM4560, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) agujaceratops, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Pavel Kacl, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Анна Митрошенкова, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Lycium barbarum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Isolation of carotenoids, flavonoids and polysaccharides from Lycium barbarum L. and evaluation of antioxidant activity
C.C. Wang, S.C. Chang, Baskaran Stephen Inbaraj, Bing‐Huei Chen (2009) · Food Chemistry
Use of Anti-aging Herbal Medicine, Lycium barbarum, Against Aging-associated Diseases. What Do We Know So Far?
Raymond Chuen‐Chung Chang, Kwok‐Fai So (2007) · Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology
Biological activities and potential health benefit effects of polysaccharides isolated from Lycium barbarum L.
Mingliang Jin, Qingsheng Huang, Ke Zhao, Peng Shang (2012) · International Journal of Biological Macromolecules
Extraction, Structural Characterization, and Biological Functions of Lycium Barbarum Polysaccharides: A Review
Xiaojing Tian, Tisong Liang, Yuanlin Liu, Gongtao Ding (2019) · Biomolecules
Immunomodulation and antitumor activity by a polysaccharide–protein complex from Lycium barbarum
Lu Gan, Sheng Hua Zhang, Yang Xiang, Hui Xu (2004) · International Immunopharmacology
Lycium barbarum (goji) juice improves in vivo antioxidant biomarkers in serum of healthy adults
Harunobu Amagase, Buxiang Sun, Carmia Borek (2009) · Nutrition Research

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Lycium 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 161 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.