A cut the width of the pruning saw blade is made in the bark around the branch or trunk. Girdling is preferably done in early September in Hawaii. Different branches are sometimes girdled in successive years to avoid damaging the tree. Propping or bracing branches is advisable when heavy crops occur on trees with weak, sharp-angled crotches. Immature leaflets are pale green, often tinged with bronze or pink, turning dark green and leathery when mature.
Leaves are pinnate with one to five pairs of leaflets.
The fruit flesh is juicy, white, translucent, and gelatinous, and does not adhere to the seed. The single seed is usually large but occasionally small and shrunken or abortive. Longan grows well in Hawaii, but fruiting of seedling trees is erratic. Rambutan and pulasan are more tropical in origin than lychee or longan. Lychees are and probably will remain a favorite home garden tree in Hawaii since there is hardly a more attractive ornamental fruit tree than a well shaped, dark green lychee tree heavily laden with clusters of bright red fruits.