Род Дерезы (Lycium)

Genus of flowering plants
automatic taxobox
|image = African boxthorn. jpg
|image caption = African boxthorn (Lycium ferocissimum)
|taxon = Lycium
|authority = L. (1753)
|subdivision ranks = Species
|subdivision = 101; see text
|subdivision ref =
|range map = Carte lycium. jpg
|synonyms =
Ascleia
Cantalea
Evoista Raf. (1838)
Grabowskia
Jasminoides Duhamel (1755)
Oplukion Raf. (1838)
Panzeria J. F. Gmel. (1791)
Phrodus
Pukanthus
Rhopalostigma
Teremis Raf. (1838)
Triliena
|synonyms ref = 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. There are several scattered across Europe and Asia, and one is native to Australia. Common English names for plants of this genus include box thorn, wolfberry, and desert thorn. Plants of the World Online currently accepts 101 species. species.

The generic name Lycium is derived from the Greek word λυκιον (lykion), which was applied by Pliny the Elder (23 79) and Pedanius Dioscorides (ca. 40–90) to a plant known as dyer's buckthorn. It was probably a Rhamnus species and was named for Lycia (Λυκία), the ancient southern Anatolian region in which it grew. The berry is called lycii fructus ("lycium fruit") in old Latin pharmacological texts.

Lycium are shrubs, often thorny, growing 1 to 4 meters tall. The leaves are small, narrow, and fleshy, and are alternately arranged, sometimes in fascicles. Flowers are solitary or borne in clusters. The funnel shaped or bell shaped corolla is white, green, or purple in color. The fruit is a two chambered, usually fleshy and juicy berry which can be red, orange, yellow, or black. It may have few seeds or many.

Lycium has been known to European herbalists since ancient times, and species were traded from the Far East to Europe by the Romans, for example via Ariaca and the port of Barbarikon near today's Karachi, as mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. In his Naturalis historia, Pliny the Elder describes boxthorn as a medicinal plant, as does Pedanius Dioscorides in his P. Dioscoridae pharmacorum simplicium reique medicae. Lycium, particularly L. barbarum, have long been used in traditional Chinese medicine. The leaves and roots of other species of Lycium, such as L. europaeum, when mixed with water, have been used in folk medicine. The fruit of L. barbatum and L. chinense, known as goji berry, is commonly consumed as a dried fruit.

Buchozia japonica (Thunb.) Callm. (as L. foetidum L. f. or L. japonicum Thunb.)