Chinese teaplant
Lycium chinense Mill.
- light
- Full sun
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 2.0 m
- wide
- 2.0 m
Solanaceae
Also called Chinese desert-thorn
Formerly Boberella rhombifolia, Jasminoides rhombifolium, Lycium elongatum, Lycium lanceolatum, and 6 more
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- ShrubKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- TemperateKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- China to Mongolia and Temp. E. AsiaKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun (6 h or more)Read from PFAF, one source
- Height
- 99 cm to 3.0 mRead from Wikipedia, one source
- Spread
- 2.0 mRead from PFAF, one source
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from PFAF, one source
- Flowers
- PurpleRead from Wikipedia, one source
- Coldest it survives
- -28.9 °C (USDA zone 5a)Read from PFAF, one source
Not known yet: heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (12)
- root
- LYCCHI
- French
- Lyciet de Chine
- Japanese
- クコ, 枸杞
- German
- Chinesischer Bocksdorn
- Chinese
- 枸杞, 北方枸杞, 地骨皮
- Korean
- 구기자나무, 구기자
- Czech
- kustovnice čínská
- Lithuanian
- Kininis ožerškis
- Danish
- Bredbladet bukketorn
- Chinese (China)
- 枸杞
- Dutch
- Chinese boksdoorn
- Swedish
- bredbladigt bocktörne
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- PFAF, read 2026-10-26, fact, cited
- Wikipedia, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA 3.0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0
- 3D model: Lycium chinense (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.