Hu Ci

Lycium chinense Mill. (Solanaceae), Chinese wolfberry or Chinese matrimony vine, is the source of Hu Ci, a regional name applied especially to the spiny aerial parts and root of the plant. It is a deciduous, sprawling, often spiny shrub 1-2.5 m tall with slender, arching, grey-brown branches bearing occasional sharp axillary thorns. Leaves are alternate or fascicled on short shoots, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 2-6 cm long, with entire margins and short petioles. The funnel-shaped purple to lavender flowers are 9-12 mm wide, solitary or in clusters of 2-4 in leaf axils, blooming from late spring through autumn. The fruit is a bright orange-red ovoid berry 1-2 cm long containing many small yellow seeds, ripening in late summer to autumn. Native to East Asia and widely cultivated, the fruit (Gou Qi Zi) tonifies liver and kidney yin and brightens vision, while the root bark (Di Gu Pi) clears deficiency heat in TCM.