Whilst out on the saltmarsh at low tide at Pagham Harbour recently, I came across this plant. It looked familiar but I couldn’t place it. The flowers are somewhat like a nightshade (Solanum sp.). The specimen was alone and standing very tall and erect at about 1.5m. I used the Google identifier but didn’t believe the result. The species was coming up as Lycium chinense.
I hadn’t taken my wildflower books with me so had to wait until I got home a few days later as we were on holiday. The result of what I found was disappointing. The picture of the only Lycium was somewhat poor even in Francis Rose’s ‘The Wild Flower Key’. At least I found a species that seemed to fit. I tried Fitter and Fitter’s field guide, ‘The Wildflowers of Britain and Northern Europe and was led to one line of text in a list.
This is when one needs to listen to one’s wife who says, “It looks like our Goji plant”.
The English name of the plant in the books I referred to above is quite exotic. The reason why became clear as I was researching another plant for an upcoming walk I’m ‘co-presenting’. I thought I’d check out the plant in Miles Irving’s ‘The Forager Handbook’. There was the answer and more than I was expecting.
This plant is indeed Lycium chinense or barbarum. English name Duke of Argyll’s Teaplant. (I had a conversation about it during the week with one of my keen plant interested clients, she had seen it many years ago). It is a boxthorn and also goes by many other names according to wikipedia. She was unaware that like myself the goji I spoke of was the same plant.
Recently I saw the plant growing out of a privet hedge I was working on, alongside brambles. I must say I was surprised, like seeing a snake crawl across a path before you, something out of the ordinary.
The berries are quite bitter, elliptical in shape, are red and don’t grow very much bigger than a few millimetres ( – or is that just our plant?! Looking at other pictures of the berry – the answer is yes, just our plant!) They are also known as wolfberries. It is known as one of the superfoods like the blueberry. In Miles’ book, there’s a line about where they grow in the Himalayas in great quantities. People are said to live a long life (beyond 100 years) due – to regular consumption of them.
The plant was introduced to Britain in the seventeenth century as an ornamental garden shrub and as a hedge plant. And yes Archibald Campbell 3rd Duke of Argyll was the man who introduced it to this country.
The leaves of the plant can be used for making tea hence the name tea plant. Something to try out I think!