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Lychee Tree

Lychee tree (Litchi chinensis) is popular for its sweet fruits, lychee. A lychee tree was chosen by the National Parks Board for preservation under the Heritage Trees Scheme. Located at Mt. Rosie Road (opposite house number 11B and beside the Lamp post, LP12), it is one of the largest roadside trees and stands as tall as 16 m. Lychee trees can also be found at the Singapore Botanic Garden.

Origins and cultivation
Lychee tree is native to Guangdong and Fujien provinces in southern China. Cultivation saw it spread to neighbouring countries like Burma and India over the years. The tree grows well in regions with warm and humid summers with plenty of rain although it requires a cool dry period prior to flowering. Today, lychee trees are commonly found in China and India and are also grown in the cool highlands in Thailand, Bali and Indonesia amongst other countries.

Description
The Lychee tree is of medium height, has a short stocky trunk and often sprouts crooked and twisted branches. It is slow growing, has a dense round top and may reach 30 m in height.

Foliage
Its dark green, glossy and leathery leaves are divided into four to eight leaflets and each is about three to eight mm. long. New leaves are in attractive bronze-red, grow to be shiny and dark green on the upper surface and greyish-green beneath.

Flowers
The flowers are usually about two to three cm long, yellowish-green or purplish in colour and grouped at the tip of branches. The flowers normally appear in early spring. Flowering precedes fruit maturity by about 140 days.

Fruits
The fruits are in loose, pendent clusters of between two to thirty fruits and usually are strawberry-red or sometimes pinkish. They are round, three to three and a 1/2 cm in diameter and covered with thin leathery skin. Beneath the skin is the glossy, succulent, translucent-white to pinkish fleshy aril, which is juicy and sweet. Inside the aril is a seed, which varies in size and form. It is normally hard and oblong, with a shiny dark-brown coat and white inside.

Usage
Food
Lychees are usually peeled and eaten fresh. Peeled and pitted, they are commonly added to fruit cups and fruit salad, or canned in sugar syrup. In their dried form, peeled lychees are eaten like snacks. They can be added in the Chinese tea as a sweetener in lace of sugar.

Medicine
The Chinese use Lychee flesh as a cough remedy and it is believed to have a beneficial effect on gastralgia, tumours and enlargements of the glands. The ground seed is used as an analgesic. In India, the seeds are powdered and is said to relieve neuralgic pain.

Variant Names
Common name: Lychee.
Scientific name: Litchi chinensis.



Author
Tan Hooi Geng



References
Jensen, M. (1995). Trees commonly cultivated in Southeast Asia: an illustrated field guide (pp. 144-145). Bangkok: RAP Publication.
(Call no.: RSING 582.160959 JEN)

Keng, H. (1990). The concise flora of Singapore: Gymnosperms and dicotyledons (p. 120). Singapore: Singapore University Press.
(Call no.: RSING 581.95957 KEN)

Living landmarks. (2002, September 24). The Straits Times, Home, p. 6.

National Parks Board, Singapore. (2005). Current list of heritage trees as endorsed by the opanel. Retrieved January 25, 2005, from www.nparks.gov.sg/nat_conv/her_tre_list.shtml

California Rare Fruit Growers Inc. (1996). Lychee. Retrieved November 24, 2002,  from www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/lychee.html

Morton, J. F. (1987). Lychee [Electronic version}. In Morton, J. F., Fruits of warm climates. Retrieved November 24, 2002, from 
www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/lychee.html


Further Readings
The National Gardening Association. (1994). Dictionary of horticulture. (p.297). New York, N.Y. : Viking.
(Call no.: R 635.03 DIC)

500 popular tropical plants (p. 174). (1999). Hong Kong: Periplus Editions.
(Call no.: R 635.9523 FIV)

Botanica: The illustrated A-Z of over 10,000 garden plants and how to cultivate them (p. 535). (1999). Hong Kong: Periplus Editions.
(Call no.: R 635.03 BOT)

Chow, C. (2002, September 29). Trunk services; Protected buildings are not the only things that make up Singapore's heritage. With the launch of the Nominate-A-Tree Campaign, trees are also becoming part of history. The Straits Times, Life Section. 

Chin, S. F. (1996, November 6). Sculptor loves to breathe life into chunks of wood. The Straits Times, Life, p. 12.

Wee, L. (2002, November, 2001). Leaf those trees alone. The Sunday Plus, p. 5.

Gilman, E. F., & Watson, D. G. (1993). Litchi Chinensis, Lychee. Retrieved November 24, 2002, from hort.ifas.ufl.edu/trees/LITCHIA.pdf

Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. (n.d.). Lychees and their relatives. Retrieved November 24, 2002, from 
www.rbgkew.org.uk/ksheets/lychee.html


List of Images
Jensen, M. (1995). Trees commonly cultivated in Southeast Asia: an illustrated field guide (p. 144). Bangkok: RAP Publication.
(Call no.: R SING 582.160959 JEN)

Ian Maguire and The University of Florida. (1999-2002). Pictures of the month. Retrieved November 26, 2002, from tfphotos.ifas.ufl.edu/060102.htm 

The information in this article is valid as at 2002 and correct as far as we can ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.

Subject
Nature>>Plants
Litchi chinensis--Singapore
Science and technology>>Agriculture>>Fruit crops



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