The lychee has a history of cultivation going back as far as 2000 BC according to records in China. Cultivation began in the area of southern China, Malaysia, and Vietnam. In the Southern Chinese region lychees are famed as “the King of Fruits”, where in some villages today there are still lychee trees that are over 1000 years old!
• It is a tropical and subtropical fruit tree native to Southern China and Southeaster Asia.
• It was first described and introduced to the west in 1782 and now cultivated in many parts of the world.
• There are many stories of the fruit’s use as a delicacy in the Chinese Imperial Court.
• The fresh fruit has a delicate, whitish pulp with a perfume flavor that is lost in canning.
• The fruit is mostly eaten fresh.
• The outside of the fruit is covered by a pink-red, roughly-textured rind that is inedible but easily removed.
• On average nine lychee fruits would meet an adult’s daily recommended vitamin “C” requirement.
• Like most plant-based foods, lychees are low in saturated fat and sodium and are cholesterol free.
• Some cultivators produce a high percentage of fruits with shrivelled aborted seeds known as ‘chicken tongues’. These fruit typically have a higher price, due to having more edible flesh.
