Where are goji berry production areas distributed? Overview of main producing areas
The goji berries people commonly consume as food and use medicinally are mostly the fruit of Lycium barbarum, known as "goji berries." Lycium barbarum has the largest cultivation area in China. The production areas of Lycium barbarum are mainly distributed in northwest China, while the production areas of Lycium chinense are mainly distributed in northeast China, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, southern Gansu, as well as the southwest, central, south and east China provinces and regions.
Lycium chinense
The production areas of Lycium chinense are distributed in northeast China, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, southern Gansu, as well as the southwest, central, south and east China provinces and regions; it is cultivated or has become wild in Korea, Japan and Europe. It often grows on hillsides, wasteland, hilly land, saline-alkali land, roadsides and beside villages and homes. In China, besides being widely wild, it is also cultivated in various places for medicinal use, as a vegetable or for landscaping.
Lycium barbarum
Lycium barbarum evolved from wild goji berries in northwest China, and existing cultivated varieties can still grow wild under suitable conditions. The medicinal goji berries used in early China were products collected from wild goji berries in the northwest region, and records of medicinal goji berries already appeared in medical books of the Qin and Han dynasties. Sun Simiao, a famous physician of the early Tang dynasty, wrote in Supplement to the Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold: goji berries "from Ganzhou (present-day Zhangye area in Gansu Province) are the true ones, and those with thick, large leaves are the best." Shen Kuo, a scientist of the Northern Song dynasty, recorded in Dream Pool Essays: "Goji berries growing in the far frontier of Shaanxi are more than one zhang tall, and are sweet and beautiful, different from those elsewhere."
Identification methods
Based on the distribution characteristics of the two kinds of goji berries, a simple judgment can also be made: if found in eastern, central or southern China, they are basically Lycium chinense or its varieties; if found in the northwest, they are basically Lycium barbarum or its varieties.