Admittedly, I've being an ignorant about this fruit before. It's just recently that a friend of mine from South Africa asked me whether we have some in Ghana. It was new to me. I hastily asked her to give me a shot of it since I was curious to know about it. She gave me a picture of it as shown above. Why am I writing a post about this fruit? That's a very welcomed question at least about this fruit which remains hidden in most countries. Ghanaians, and most West Africans have a special hype for fruits that are multifunctional. And as a member of this part of the world, I found it interesting to write about it to highlight on some of it's uses. But before I press on to give that information, I will take some time to provide a little background about it, it's habitat and classification

BACKGROUND

Litchi chinensis is the scientific name for Lychee . Lychee is a variant for litchi. The specie name for this fruit, chinensis gives a clue about it's Chinese origin. It's a tropical tree mostly found in China in the Guangdong and Fujian provinces. China is the main producer of litchi, followed by India and other southeastern Asian countries. South Africa is the only known producer of litchi in Africa and it's from there I got to know it for the first time. It was in China where litchi cultivation was first documented in 1059 AD.

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HABITAT

it's mostly found in the tropical regions of the earth. These areas are mostly characterised by wet and dry seasons.

CLASSIFICATION

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Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Angiosperms
Class: Eudicots
Order: Sapindales
Family: Sapindaceae
Subfamily: Sapindoideae
Genus: Litchi
Sonn.
Species: L. chinensis

The family of this fruit is worth notice. That family characterise those plants that can be used in saponification. So here we know that it's not only the food, but soap also. This makes it a very important fruit.

SUBSPECIES

1. chinensis. This is the only commercialised subspecies which is found mostly in Vietnam
2. philippinensis . As the name suggest, it's prominent in the Philippines.
3. javensis this subspecies is also found mostly in Malaysia.

DESCRIPTION

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It is an evergreen tree that is frequently less than 15 m (49 ft) tall. It has a grey-black bark with brownish-red branches.

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The fruits of litchi are fleshy and mature in about 80-120 days depending on external factors. The fruit can be ovoid or heart-shaped. The green tough skin of the immature fruit becomes reddish when matured. It is smooth or covered with small sharp protuberances roughly textured. The rind is inedible but when removed, the translucent fleshy edible portion shows up. It has a sweet flavor that attracts it's lovers.

POISONING

The fruit contains methylenecyclopropylglycine which causes hypoglycemia. "Since the end of the 1990s, unexplained outbreaks of encephalopathy occurred, appearing to affect only children in India and northern Vietnam"