LITCHI AND LONGAN - Tropical Fruits - page 222

3. Litchi chinensis Sonn., ssp. chinensis , the litchi, is a subtropical species
indigenous to south China. It is principally cultivated in Guangdong, Fujian,
Guangxi and Sichuan provinces. Grof (1921) discusses in detail the origin of
the names litchi and longan. The Chinese characters for litchi convey the idea
that the fruit of the litchi must be removed from the tree by means of knives
with the twigs attached. Many cultivar names are pronunciations of various
southern Chinese dialects and spellings, which has led to some confusion. The
most recent Chinese descriptions use the spelling litchi and national dialect
name (Mandarin - common language). Other spellings and common names
are lichee, litchee, leechee, lychee, lin-chi (Thailand), laici (Malaysia), lici, litsi
(Indonesia), letsias (Philippines), li-chi or lizhi (China), vai, cayvai, or tu hu
(Vietnam).
There are two subspecies; one is found in the Philippines (ssp.
philippinensis ) and the other in Indonesia (ssp. javanensis ). The Philippine
subspecies has a long, oval-shaped fruit with thorn-like protuberances
that split when ripe, exposing an inedible aril, partially covering the seed.
The Indonesian subspecies is similar to the Chinese species and crops
more regularly in hot equatorial areas, though it has not been exploited
commercially.
4. Nephelium lappaceum L., the rambutan (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines,
English), litchi chevelu (French), and ngoh and phruan (Thailand), and
Nephelium ramboutan-ake Bl., the pulasan, ngo-khonsan (Thailand) and
kapalasan (Indonesia) are both native to the Malaysian peninsula and are now
distributed widely in South-east Asia. This species will be covered in Volume 2.
ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION
The cultivation of litchi in China antedates the beginning of the Christian era
according to Chinese writings going back to 1766 BC (Storey, 1973). Early
distribution into other tropical and subtropical regions occurred during the
16th and 17th centuries. The litchi was introduced into India in 1798 and has
developed into a signifi cant industry. Litchi and longan reached Europe during
the early part of the 19th century and are mentioned as having reached
Trinidad before 1880, with a few trees being grown in Florida as early as 1883
(Grof , 1921). The fi rst litchi tree is said to have been brought to Hawaii about
the year 1873 by Mr Ching Chock, a Chinese merchant, and was planted
on the property of Mr Chun Afong and became known as the 'Afong' tree,
identifi ed as Gui Wei (Kwai Mi), later re-identifi ed as similar to 'Da Zao'. The
oi ce of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction in the United States, Department
of Agriculture began introducing litchi plants in 1907. The late Professor
G.W. Grof , who resided in south China almost continuously from l907 to l94l
as Dean of the College of Agriculture, Lingnan University, Guangzhou, China,