A small fruit has thus promoted a big industry, so adding impetus to local agricultural structural adjustments. Several new goji berry species cultivated in Haixi in recent years strengthen their market appeal.
Millennium-old Goji Berry Forest. Visitors in search of the origins of the local goji berry culture are often directed to a 1,year-old wild goji berry forest in Wulonggou. Hidden in Dulan County, it is the largest forest of its kind in the Qaidam Basin. Wulonggou is situated on the Kunlun Mountains. A surprising quantity of wild goji berries doggedly survive in the valley, on land that has sparse vegetation due to an arid climate.
However, their fruits are small and scant. Most trees no longer bear fruit, even though their leaves still flourish. Local professionals explained that artificially planted goji berry trees often yield more, and their fruits are plumper.
In a bid to make picking easier, the height to which saplings grow is controlled. Yet although wild goji berry trees bear smaller fruits and yield less, they taste much better than those that have been planted.
Wild goji berry trees grow on almost 66, hectares of the Qaidam Basin, of which hectares are in Wulonggou. Their natural seeds provide ample gene varieties for cultivating new species. Besides, goji berry trees of more than years old β conspicuously beyond the average age of 35 to 50 years β are still found in the region.
