page_title: Lychee
section_title: Cultivation and uses
hierarchical_section_title: Lychee / Cultivation and uses
caption_attribution_description: English: Litchi seed with an emerging root.
context_page_description: Lychee is the sole member of the genus Litchi in the soapberry family, Sapindaceae.
  It is a tropical tree native to the Guangdong and Fujian provinces of southeastern China, where cultivation is documented from the 11th century. China is the main producer of lychees, followed by India, other countries in Southeast Asia, the Indian Subcontinent and South Africa. A tall evergreen tree, the lychee bears small fleshy fruits. The outside of the fruit is pink-red, roughly textured and inedible, covering sweet flesh eaten in many different dessert dishes.
  Lychee seeds contain methylene cyclopropyl glycine which can cause hypoglycemia associated with outbreaks of encephalopathy in undernourished Indian and Vietnamese children who had consumed lychee fruit.
context_section_description: Lychees are extensively grown in southern China, Taiwan, Vietnam and the rest of tropical Southeast Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, and in tropical regions of many other countries. They require a tropical climate that is frost-free and is not below the temperature of −4 °C (25 °F). Lychees require a climate with high summer heat, rainfall, and humidity, growing optimally on well-drained, slightly acidic soils rich in organic matter and mulch. 
  Some 200 cultivars exist, with early and late maturing forms suited to warmer and cooler climates, respectively, although mainly eight cultivars are used for commerce in China. They are also grown as an ornamental tree, as well as for their fruit. The most common way of propagating lychee is through a method called air layering or marcotting. Air-layers, or marcotts, are made by cutting a branch of a mature tree, covering the cut with a rooting medium, such as peat or sphagnum moss, then wrapping the medium with polyethylene film and allowing the cut to root. Once significant rooting has occurred, the marcott is cut from the branch and potted.
  According to folklore, a lychee tree that is not producing much fruit can be girdled, leading to more fruit production. When the central opening of trees is carried out as part of training and pruning, stereo fruiting can be achieved for higher orchard productivity.
  Lychees are commonly sold fresh in Asian markets. The red rind turns dark brown when the fruit is refrigerated, but the taste isn't affected. It is also sold canned year-round. The fruit can be dried with the rind intact, at which point the flesh shrinks and darkens.
caption: Germinating lychee seed with its main root (about 3 months old)
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