Scientific Name : Litchi chinensis Sonn.
Common Name : Lychee, Lichee
Chinese Name : 荔枝
Family : SAPINDACEAE
Local distribution status : Exotic species
| Origin | Lychee is one of the most distributed fruit trees in the world, with its origin from China, eg. Yunnan and Sichuan. The tree we see nowadays is actually a product under a long journey of domestication. Recently, scientists have discovered the origins of two progenitors of Lychee, with the early-maturing cultivar from Yunnan and the late-maturing cultivar from Hainan. 'Smiling Concubines' is the popular hybrid of Yunnan's and Hainan's cultivars. |
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| Application | Lychee can be processed into dried lychee and lychee wine. Its wood is demanded for making furniture. |
| Meanings of name | Lychee was previously named as '離枝' due to which the fruits are always harvested with branches attached. Until the Eastern Han (25-220 AD), the tree has been renamed into '荔枝', which is homophones of '離枝' in Chinese. |
| History of Lychee |
Lychee is a prominent fruit tree in China and fascinated emperors for millennia. The earliest record of Lychee was documented in the Han dynasty. Followed by Emperor Wu of Han (141 BC-87 BC) conquering Guangdong, he introduced Lychee and other subtropical and tropical fruits into Fuli Palace in Shanglinyuan (near to today's Xi'an), probably the most preliminary tropical botanical garden in the world. However, the introduced Lychee was less acclimatised to the environment and wilted eventually. With a yearn to the fruits, Emperor Wu of Han thus ignited an idea of delivering the fresh fruits from Southern China to his palace by fast horse for a sake of the preservation of freshness. The fruits spoil rapidly; as Bai Juyi mentioned in his preface of '荔枝圖序', '若離本枝，一日而色變，二日而香變，三日而味變，四五日外，色香味盡去矣', indicating the difficulty of preserving the fruits. In the Tang Dynasty, Yang Guifei was an aficionado of Lychee. A courier service with fast horses was then used to deliver fresh Lychee promptly. |
| Growing habit | Evergreen tree. |
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| Height | To 10 m. |
| Stem | Bark scabrous, grayish black, initially reddish brown. |
| Leaves | Paripinnately compound alternate, leaflets 2-4 pairs, subopposite, pedicellate. Leaf blade lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, sometimes long elliptic-lanceolate. Base cuneate to rounded, apex shortly caudate-acuminate or cuspidate, thinly leathery or leathery. Back pink-green, white powder, midrib prominent, lateral veins apart. |
| Flower | Duodichogamous. Panicles terminal, multi-branched, large, calyx golden tomentose. Male flowers stamens 6-8. Female flowers ovary densely hispid and tuberculous. |
| Fruit | Fruits drupaceous, globose to subglobose, pericarp usually dark red to fresh red at maturity, tuberculous. Seeds covered by white fleshy arillode. |
| Flowering period | February to April in Hong Kong. |
| Fruiting period | May to June in Hong Kong. |
Scientific name above is based on Hong Kong Herbarium website : https://herbarium.gov.hk/en/hk-plant-database/plant-detail/index.html?pType=species&oID=2870
Scientific names from other databases :
― Flora of China : Litchi chinensis Sonnerat
— Plants of the World Online : Litchi chinensis Sonn.