Eden

Penang Botanic Gardens Plant Collection

Litchi chinensis Sonn. (SAPINDACEAE)

Posted at — Nov 13, 2019
Lychee.

Description

Medium-sized tree to 30 m tall (much shorter in cultivated trees). Leaves compound, 10-20 cm long, with 2-3 pairs of leaflets, without terminal leaflets. Flowers in terminal and axillary clusters, widely branched. Fruits with warty pericarps, 3.5 cm long, ovoid, ripening red; seed covered by a white fleshy aril.

Ecology

Hill forests to lower montane forest. Widely cultivated, however seeds raised from imported fruits in Peninsular Malaysia rarely flower, these plants having been bred for a different climate.

Distribution

SE China, Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, Philippines, SE New Guinea.

Uses

Fruits edible.