While walking through the forest, we often meet beautiful berries, which are popularly called wolf berries. If you eat them, you will definitely get poisoned. Is it so? In fact, wolfberries are the collective name for a number of plants. These include belladonna, wolfberry, raven eye, honeysuckle, buckthorn, snowberry, common dereza. Photos of these plants, the fruits of which in most cases are really inedible, are very often found on the pages of publications devoted to wildlife. Many of us have known since childhood that such berries should not be eaten. A separate place in this list is occupied by common dereza, the fruits of which are a very valuable source of nutrients.
Wolfberry, bulldurgun, Tibetan barberry, goji, lycium. All these names belong to the same plant - dereza, which supplies us with the most valuable raw materials used to prepare all kinds of healing compounds.
Description of the plant
The common dereza, whose Latin name is Lýcium bárbarum, belongs to a large familyNightshade and is a woody plant belonging to the genus Dereza, with more than sixty species. The homeland of wolfberry is China, but it is also possible to grow it in Russia.
In height, this shrub reaches a height of 3.5 meters. The branches of the plant are covered with small thin spines. The leaves are simple, entire, elliptical in shape, the flowers are bell-shaped, lilac or pink, the fruit is a small, bright coral-red berry. Dereza vulgaris during the fruiting period, which lasts from May to October (depending on the region), is capable of producing up to thirteen crops.
About the benefits of common dereza
The fruits of the plant are rich in ascorbic, gamma-aminobutyric and nicotinic acids, vitamins A, B1, B2, polysaccharides, proteins, amino acids and many other useful substances.
Leaves and berries (both ripe and dried) common dereza are used to treat various diseases of the cardiovascular and nervous systems, normalize kidney function. They also lower cholesterol levels and normalize blood sugar levels. In addition, the fruits of this plant increase potency, for which they were dubbed the berries of love. For its medicinal properties of a wide spectrum of action, common dereza is called a remedy for a thousand diseases.
Growing wolfberry in the garden
Is it easy to grow a shrub? Dereza ordinary feels great in almost all conditions. Moreover, before you start breeding dereza, you shouldconsider that it is easier to grow it than to get rid of it later. This unpretentious plant, which perfectly takes root on semi-saline and insufficiently moistened soils, grows quite quickly and successfully, displacing its neighbors in order to win a large area for itself. Therefore, it is better to plant it in wastelands, along ditches and roads, gardens or apiaries.
Dereza vulgaris is equally well propagated by cuttings and seeds. In the first case, one- or two-year-old shoots are used, having 3-4 buds and a length of 10-15 cm, which are first grown in a greenhouse soil consisting of a mixture of peat and sand. The cutting is immersed in the soil to a depth of 5 cm, while the lowest kidney should be sprinkled with earth. Surface sowing is used for seed germination. To achieve the best result, the seeds should be placed in warm water for two days, then treated with a solution of potassium permanganate and planted in the ground. In the process of seed germination, it is necessary to maintain constant moisture.
In early spring in adult plants, about one third of the old shoots should be cut under the root. It is necessary to water the common dereza only during the rooting period or in a hot dry summer, as it does not like too much humidity.
