


THE LYCHEE IN FLORIDA ° 3 

THE LYCHEE TREE AND FRUIT | ; 
The Lychee (Litchi chinensis) is a subtropical evergreén 
tree that produces one of the world’s finest fresh fruits. 
The tree is indigenous to China and the fruit is there 
highly esteemed. It comes from southeastern China where 
the climate is much like that of Central and South Florida. 
The fresh ripe fruit is about the size and color of a large ripe 
strawberry. It has a very thin but tough skin, the upper 
part of which is removed between the thumb and first finger 
before the fruit is eaten. It is very high in sugar content and 
has a flavor all its own. Its great value is as a fresh fruit, 
but it may be preserved, and it deep freezes perfectly, thus 
spreading consumption throughout the year. 
The fresh fruit of the Lychee tree has for many centuries 
been considered by the Chinese to be the finest of the fruits. 
It has met with instant acceptance by the Americans. The 
Chinese could not bring it into the United States in the fresh 
state, so they dried it and shipped it in as ‘‘Dried Lychees,” 
and which many American consumers call ‘Lychee (or 
Litchi) Nuts.” The fresh Lychee is as much superior to the 
dried Lychee as the fresh peach is to the dried peach. 
The fruit grows in clusters on the limb tips of evergreen 
trees that may ultimately reach a height of forty feet with 
about the same spread. Each tree produces both staminate 
and pistillate flowers. There are many varieties of Lychee. 
Fruit producing trees of the variety called Brewster, from 
Henghwa, Fukien Province, China, are growing in several 
hundred locations in Florida, ranging from Orlando to Home- 
stead. Both coasts and the Ridge, Everglades and Redlands 
districts are represented. Fukien province is on the extreme 
northern fruiting range of the Lychee in China and the 
Brewster variety is therefore well adapted to Florida. 
Not only is the Lychee a most desirable tree on account 
of its fine fruit, but it is a highly ornamental evergreen door- 
yard tree of symmetrical lines. Several times each year it 
throws out a new growth of leaves, usually wine colored, and 
when the fruit is ripe its bright red clusters present a striking 
object in the landscape. 
Like citrus, Lychee seedlings cannot be depended upon 
to reproduce true to parentage, and as budding is unsuccess- 
ful, Chinese air-layering and inarching are depended upon 
for exact reproduction. It usually requires from four to six 
years for layered or inarched trees to bear. Seedlings may 
require twice that length of time. 
The Lychee is a subtropical, not a tropical tree. It needs 
a warm location and yet seems not to fruit well without a win- 
