What Are Goji Berries and Are They the Same As Wolfberries?
There's a grand little red berry that grows all colse to the world, and habitancy in separate places call it by separate names. Many English speaking habitancy call it a Wolfberry, and nowadays even more English Speakers are calling it a Goji Berry. But it's de facto the very same thing.
What Are Goji Berries and Are They the Same As Wolfberries?
What Are Goji Berries and Are They the Same As Wolfberries?
What Are Goji Berries and Are They the Same As Wolfberries?
What Are Goji Berries and Are They the Same As Wolfberries?
As we all know, Science assigns two Latin names to every botanical organism, a genus and a species. Two plants that are even a little separate from each other have separate species names. Thus, if two plants have the same genus and species names, they're the same plant. habitancy can call them by separate names, but that doesn't change the fact that they're de facto the same thing.
The Goji berry/Wolfberry plant, whose genus is Lycium, has two intimately related species. One species is known as Barbarum and the other is Chinensis. Both species grow in many places on the earth.
Since habitancy in separate countries tend to speak separate languages, it's not surprising that Chinese and Tibetan habitancy don't call these berries wolfberries. China has many dialects. The plant is oftentimes 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. Tibetan has many names for the berries, along with 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.
In about 1973, the word "Goji" began to be used for the first time in English so 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 marketers as the berries have appeared in more and more natural Foods stores in the U.S. The new word "Goji" is now quite ordinarily used.
It's not de facto clear where the word "wolfberry" originated. One ideas 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 wolfberry plant might have come from elsewhere, such as China, originally.
But this doesn't explain why it has the word "wolf" in it. Thus, another possibility is that Lycium Barbarum comes from the Greek word "Lycos," or Wolf. Wolves do eat berries and other fruits to get needed fiber in their diets. They also eat tomatoes, the Latin name of which means "Wolf Peach" (Solanum lycopersicum.) The word "lycos," or wolf, can be seen in the Latin.
The genus Tomato (Solanum) contains another species, lycocarpum, which translates to Wolf Apple. This medium sized yellow tomato isn't well-known to many of us because it grows in South America. South American wolves eat them! It's not the same plant as the tomato we're used to in North America. What's my point? I'm getting to that...
Goji berries and Wolfberries are in the Nightshade house (Solanaceae), and so are tomatoes! Nightshades are an foremost source of Food and spice. Nightshade species contain potatoes, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, chili peppers (capsicum), deadly nightshade (belladonna), datura (jimson weed), tobacco, mandrake, wolfberry and many more.
Many of the species in this foremost house of foods are used in making herbal medicines by native peoples all colse to the world. Some of them have psychoactive properties. Goji berries are legendary as a corrective plant and have been used as such for many centuries in many countries.
Goji berries and wolfberries have lots of other names such as boxthorn, Duke of Argyll's Tea Tree, Matrimony Vine, Bocksdorn, Cambronera, Chinese Wolfberry, and Red Medlar.
The point here is that Lycium Barbarum and Lycium Chinensis are two wholly separate species, two wholly separate plants. Many habitancy proclaim separate names for them. They claim, for example, that "Tibetan Lycium Eleagnus Barbarum" is the Real Himalayan Gogi berry, even though it doesn't de facto exist as a species.
There's no interrogate that these two species have separate corrective and nutritional properties, Because they're separate species. In fact, it's not only that separate species are separate from each other, it's also true that all the many Varieties of any one species are somewhat separate chemically and therefore nutritionally.
In some great areas of Tibet and northern China there is what is ordinarily known as the "Goji belt," a fertile high altitude region where Goji plants are cultivated and grow wild. The "highest quality" Goji berries are produced in the best location and climate, which turns out to be this Goji belt. This is because of the lucidity of the water and the mineral-rich soil washing down from the high mountains.
The political strife going on in the middle of Tibet and China is well known. There is also Tibetan/Chinese political strife about what defines a Goji berry. From a Western perspective, this is just plain confusing.
Additionally, the name Tibet carries an unmistakable mystique. It's therefore easy for Western marketers to capitalize on it, claiming the superiority of Tibetan Goji berries over all others. But, as we've shown, from a scientific perspective, "Tibetan" Goji berries don't exist.
Tibet, a country more vertical than horizontal, mostly dry, infertile and arid, with few roads among the top mountains in the world, is not preeminent for farming. It's adjacent to China. The political boundaries de facto don't matter to the land or the Goji plants; instead, as has been Mentioned, the soil and the atmosphere are the foremost factors when growing Chinese wolfberries and Goji berries.
The top potential berries have the top 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 ultimate climatic characteristic 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," second largest are "king," etc. You might find marketers advertising their berries as the biggest, but they're still all the same berry, Lycium Barbarum. They're that unless, of course, they're Lycium Chinensis.
Wolfberries, Gojis, they're wonderful. It's easy for politics and marketers to confuse and blow smoke all colse to a bushel of Goji berries or Goji juice. However, nothing clouds the central fact that this unique little berry is the biggest nutritional powerhouse in the world!
What Are Goji Berries and Are They the Same As Wolfberries?
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