Litchee chinensis

 The Lychee (Lichee, or Litchi), Litchee chinensis, is a species of soapberry tree indigenous to Southern Asian rainforests. This close relative of the Longan and Rambutan has been cultivated in tropical China for no less than four thousand years. Today, China is the leading producer and exporter of lychees, followed closely by the countries of India, Vietnam and Malaysia.

For centuries, the lychee has been much beloved by the Chinese, to the point where a Pony Express-like courier service was established solely to bring the fresh fruit to the Imperial Court. In 111 BCE, imperial records speak of Emperor Wu of Han (of the Western Han Dynasty) ordering around 100 lychee trees to be planted in the imperial gardens at the palace in Chang’an. All but one of the trees died soon after being planted. The last tree languished and eventually died one year later in the comparatively cold climate of Central China. In response to the tree’s demise, Emperor Wu ordered the executions of all of the imperial gardeners as punishment for their failure to care for the trees, then reestablished the lychee courier system.

Disregarding Emperor Wu of Han’s disastrous attempt, the Chinese have excelled in domesticating the lychee, having produced dozens of recorded varieties by 1500 BCE. Today, lychee cultivation is focused in Guandong province and Hainan Island. The primary obstacles to the lychee industry are the fruit’s short shelf life, a short fruit season, and how the fruit’s quality degrades when refrigerated for a prolonged time. Even so, the fruit is easily canned, and is often seen in cans in supermarkets, both Asian-themed and Western, throughout the world.

Although the seed, or “nut,” is used in Traditional Chinese medicine as an important yang tonic herb, the fruit, itself, has potent medicinal affects. The primary function of lychee fruit in Food Therapy is tonifying qi and blood, and can be paired with longan as duiyao to enhance this function. In particular, lychee can be used to tonify qi and blood especially if the patient is suffering or recovering from a wasting disease, such as dysentery. The secondary function of lychee is to expel cold from the body, but, since the fruit is available only during summer months, it would be unwise to eat lychees for this purpose in an environment where summer heat conditions predominate. Because they are so juicy, lychees can alleviate thirst.

The preferred method of consuming lychees in Chinese culture is to eat the freshly picked and freshly peeled fruit raw. While most raw foods are shunned as unhealthful in Chinese cuisine, the lychee is regarded as one exception as the flavor is at its best when the ripe fruit has been picked directly from the tree. As such, the idea of cooking lychees is often seen as tantamount to tampering with perfection. Despite this, there are some recipes which call for (lightly) steaming lychees.

In Western Nutrition, lychees are seen as an excellent source of antioxidants, and, as a result, have been recently declared a “super food.” Many nutritional supplements feature extracts of lychee because of the fruit’s super food status. In Western cuisine, as in Chinese cuisine, lychees are treated as a dessert and a snack. When available, lychees are eaten fresh (more often quickly frozen then thawed). However, most Westerns who have enjoyed lychee usually eat canned lychee, often as a dessert topping or in fruit salads.