Litchi chinensis

• Botanical Name : Litchi chinensis Sonn.
• Synonyms : Nephelium litchi Steud.
• Common Name : Litchi
• Plant Family : Sapindaceae
• Plant Form : Herb
• Occurrence (Sectors) : 28
• Occurrence (Special Areas) : Indroda Park

About Litchi chinensis Plant :

• Habit : A medium sized evergreen tree with grey-black bark and brownish-red branches.
• Leaves : Pinnately compound, leaflets petiolate, leaflets in 2-4 pairs.
• Inflorescence : Terminal with many panicles.
• Flowers :
  • Many, white, yellow or green in color and fragrant.Anthers shorter than the filaments.
  • Disc glabrous.
  • Ovary 2-3 celled, ferruginous hairy, style 2-3 lobed, lobes recurved.
• Fruit :
  • Fruit 2-1 lobed, globose, pericarp dry, at length brittle, tubercles angular, aril fleshy, whitish, edible.
  • Fleshy fruit covered with thin, tough inedible skin which is green earlier and turns red or pink-red on ripening.
  • Whitish "Aril" is the edible fleshy portion of the fruit which surrounds one dark brown inedible seed.
• Flowering and Fruiting Time : March - Oct
• Significance :
  • It is cultivated for its delicious fruit.
  • Different type of dessert dishes are known to be prepared from the juicy fruit.