Plant · P-456

Wolfberry

Lycium chinense

Wolfberry is a deciduous, arching shrub in the nightshade family, usually 3 to 6 feet tall but occasionally reaching 12. The sweet, aniseed-noted berries are the main crop, eaten fresh, dried, or cooked into soups once fully ripe, and the peppermint-flavored young leaves and shoots are a second real harvest, eaten raw or cooked and rich in vitamin A. It has the widest cold tolerance in its genus, taking a sunny spot on ordinary to poor well-drained soil and even some maritime salt exposure. It spreads by both root suckers and self-sown seed, so it's usually kept to a hedge line or fence row rather than let loose in an open bed.