Plant · P-497

Lychee

Litchi chinensis

Lychee produces a white translucent fruit under a rough red rind, sweet, juicy and subacid, eaten fresh, dried into lychee nuts with a smoky flavor, pickled, canned in syrup, or made into jam and ice cream. Flowering asks for a narrow window rather than simple cold: it needs a dry, cold but non-freezing winter of three to five months to set a good crop, so a winter warm enough to avoid frost damage can be too warm to flower, and one cold enough to flower well can be cold enough to kill the tree. It grows into a full-size 40-foot tree with major limbs starting within a few feet of the ground, so unlike some tropical fruits it can't simply be kept small in a container to dodge the cold, and even where it thrives a good crop comes only about one year in three or four.