Species
+

Lycium chinense Mill.

Chinese Teaplant, Chinese box-thorn, Chinese boxthorn, Chinese boxthorn

Climate known 70 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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 chinense is one of two species of boxthorn shrub in the family Solanaceae. Along with Lycium barbarum, it produces the goji berry ("wolfberry"). Two varieties are recognized, L. chinense var. chinense and L. chinense var. potaninii. It is also known as Chinese boxthorn, Chinese matrimony-vine, Chinese teaplant, Chinese wolfberry, wolfberry, and Chinese desert-thorn.

Text from Wikipedia, “Lycium chinense”, 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
Mill.
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, Inner Mongolia +10
Wild records
731 in range· 360 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Aug, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1190mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 198 mm (CHELSA)
Light
16–35DLI
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, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1190 mm a year, wettest July at 198 mm, driest December at 29 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -6.9 °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 rhombifolia (Moench) E.H.L.Krause; Jasminoides rhombifolium Moench; Lycium barbarum Lam.; Lycium barbarum var. chinense (Mill.) Aiton; Lycium chinense subsp. rhombifolium (Moench) Thell. and 20 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April 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 (900 mm of 1190 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.3 °C against a yearly mean of 14.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October 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 1190 mm a year, wettest July at 198 mm, driest December at 29 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1190 mm a year at the habitat, 900 mm of it April to September. Wettest month July at 198 mm, driest December at 29 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 567 mm to 1997 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: 16 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 35 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 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

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 -6.9 °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 -6.9 °C, the absolute minimum -14.8 °C, about 78 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -1.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells -10.0 °C to 6.5 °C), warmest day 28.5 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -6.9 °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: 56 to 65% 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 7 °C in Jan to 29 °C in Aug; mean night from -1 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1190 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 635 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -14.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost35.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)-14.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 16–35RH 56–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 635 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 °C7 / 1–149 / 3–1512 / 8–1918 / 14–2323 / 18–2726 / 22–3028 / 24–3229 / 25–3125 / 21–2820 / 16–2514 / 9–209 / 3–16
Night °C-1 / -10–70 / -7–84 / -2–119 / 4–1614 / 10–2019 / 15–2322 / 18–2523 / 17–2519 / 12–2213 / 5–187 / -2–132 / -7–8
Rain mm34 / 5–8343 / 6–10966 / 14–17293 / 26–202124 / 50–250168 / 74–316198 / 129–329171 / 114–309146 / 60–23267 / 28–18551 / 12–10729 / 4–58
DLI18 / 14–2022 / 17–2528 / 20–3134 / 24–3735 / 28–3934 / 28–3933 / 29–3731 / 29–3527 / 23–3023 / 18–2518 / 15–2116 / 14–20
RH %56 / 50–6356 / 50–6457 / 49–6459 / 48–6561 / 50–6564 / 53–6865 / 59–7065 / 60–6862 / 57–6559 / 54–6458 / 52–6356 / 51–62

Each figure is the median across the 635 grid cells holding the 719 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 1107:5990 (34.625, 119.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -14.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -6.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.6 °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 635 distinct grid cells holding the 719 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1107:5990 (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 34.50_119.375, lapse-corrected -5 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2 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, Hainan, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, Qinghai, China Southeast, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Italy, Romania, Turkey-in-Europe, Primorye, East Aegean Is., Lebanon-Syria, Turkey, Assam, Nepal, Pakistan, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Jawa, Society Is., Ontario, Oregon, Illinois, Missouri, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, California, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker36.836, 127.235 · in the densest population, 188 records (26% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 731 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 360 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1108 km away. 895 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 12 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 731 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Lycium chinenseLycium chinenseLycium chinenseLycium chinenseLycium chinenseLycium chinenseLycium chinenseLycium chinense

Photographs: (c) Hibiki Katayama, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Björn Sothmann, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Oleksandr Shynder, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5).

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 chinense, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Alpha-Tocopherol Content in 62 Edible Tropical Plants
Ling Soon Ching, Suhaila Mohamed (2001) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Polyphenolic Content, Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activities of Lycium barbarum L. and Lycium chinense Mill. Leaves
Andrei Mocan, Laurian Vlase, Dan Cristian Vodnar, Cristina Bischin (2014) · Molecules
Herbal medicine in the treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus
Guoming Pang, Fangxu Li, Yong Yan, Yin Zhang (2019) · Chinese Medical Journal
Quality Variation of Goji (Fruits of Lycium spp.) in China: A Comparative Morphological and Metabolomic Analysis
Ruyu Yao, Michael Heinrich, Yuanfeng Zou, Eike Reich (2018) · Frontiers in Pharmacology
Structure of kukoamine A, a hypotensive principle of Lycium chinense root barks1
Shinji Funayama, Kozue Yoshida, Chohachi Konno, Hiroshi Hikino (1980) · Tetrahedron Letters
Anti-fungal effects of phenolic amides isolated from the root bark of Lycium chinense
Dong Gun Lee, Yoonkyung Park, Mi‐Ran Kim, Hyun Jun Jung (2004) · Biotechnology Letters
Hepatoprotective pyrrole derivatives of Lycium chinense fruits
Young‐Won Chin, Song Won Lim, Seok‐Ho Kim, Dongyun Shin (2003) · Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
Dihydrocaffeoyl Polyamines (Kukoamine and Allies) in Potato (Solanum tuberosum) Tubers Detected during Metabolite Profiling
Adrian Parr, Fred A. Mellon, Ian J. Colquhoun, Howard V. Davies (2005) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Selenium increases chlorogenic acid, chlorophyll and carotenoids of Lycium chinense leaves
Jing Dong, Ying Wang, Shu H Wang, Ling P Yin (2012) · Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture
Specific α‐Galactosidase Inhibitors, N‐Methylcalystegines Structure/Activity Relationships of Calystegines from Lycium Chinense
Naoki Asano, Atsushi Kato, Miwa Miyauchi, Haruhisa Kizu (1997) · European Journal of Biochemistry
Protective effect of Lycium chinense fruit on carbon tetrachloride-induced hepatotoxicity
Ki‐Tae Ha, Sang-Ju Yoon, Dall-Yeong Choi, Dong‐Wook Kim (2004) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology

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 184 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.