Lychee Description : Lychee is a medium-sized tree that can reach a height of 15 to 20 m. The general silhouette is quite round, the foliage is dense and well covering.
It has compound leaves alternate 15 to 25 cm long. They are paripinnate, which means that they are formed of an even number of leaflets and that there is none in terminal position. The leaflets, 2 to 8 per leaf, each measure 5 to 10 cm in length. The top of limbus is quite dark green and glazed in appearance, the underside is rather greyish and dull in appearance. Before reaching this colour, when fully developed, the young leaves take on a brilliant coppery-red color then a soft green.
The flowers are small (4 to 5 mm in diameter each) and pinkish-white to greenish-white in color. They are made up of a small ovarian disc and nectariferous with two carpels surmounted by a crown ofstamens erect, usually six in number. Fertilization is carried out by insects, mainly by bees. The flowers are grouped in panicles erect up to 30 cm long.
The trunk is often branched at low height from the ground. The bark is smooth but the surface of the trunk is very irregular, ribbed or grooved.
The fruit is a small sphere 3 to 4 cm in diameter, sometimes a little heart-shaped, surrounded by a rather leathery scaly-looking envelope which takes on a pink to red color when ripe.
The fruits are borne in hanging clusters. Each cluster has a few units to a few dozen litchis. Each small sphere is usually unique, but as the fruit comes from a flower with two carpels, it quite often happens to find double litchis with two equal spheres or one of which is present but atrophied.
After picking, the shell browns fairly quickly but the flavor and quality of the fruit are maintained beyond this browning.
The inside of the fruit contains a pulpy part, glassy white in color, fragrant and juicy, rich in vitamin C, which is in fact an aril, an outgrowth produced at the level of the border of the trick, the nourishing scar of the seed.
Although it looks like it, the lychee is therefore not a drupes because the mesocarp, instead of being developed and fleshy, forms only the thin median film of the shell.
In the center of the fruit is the single seed, oblong in shape, glazed brown in color, which looks like a small, elongated horse chestnut. This seed is poisonous and should not be eaten.
History of lychee : The first historical mention of lychee cultivation dates back to 111 BC. J.-C.
In China, there is a reference to lychee during the Tang Dynasty, in the XNUMXth century, when it was the favorite fruit of Yang Guifei, favorite of Emperor Tang Xuanzong. The fruit only grew in southern China, and it was delivered by imperial messengers who took turns night and day to bring back the precious commodity. Most historians believe the lychees came from present-day Guangdong Province, but some believe they came from present-day Sichuan Province.
The first known description of lychee by a Westerner is that reported by Michał Boym (ca.1612–1659), a Polish Jesuit missionary in China, naturalist and geographer, in his work Flora Sinensis.
The lychee was then described by Pierre Sonnerat (1748-1814) on his return from his trip to Southeast Asia and China.
It was introduced to Réunion in 1764 by Pierre Poivre and Joseph-François Charpentier de Cossigny de Palma. On the island, it is called litchi. From there, it was planted in Madagascar, which became one of the biggest producers of lychees.
Subspecies and varieties : There are two subspecies of Litchi chinensis:
- Litchi chinensis subsp. chinensis, originating in China and Indochina; the leaves have 4 to 8 leaflets (rarely two).
- Litchi chinensis subsp. philippinensis (Radlk.) Leenh., native to the Philippines and Indonesia; the leaves have 2 to 4 leaflets (rarely six).
Various cultivars have been developed and are generally propagated by layering (a mode of propagation of a plant by which an aerial stem is buried and takes root).
The Chinese have cultivated lychee for centuries, developing many cultivars.
Lychee production : Originally from China, it is said that the best lychees (according to the words of a Chinese empress, probably Yang Guifei) are those of the province of Guangdong, but they are also grown today in South Africa, in Reunion and, in large quantities, in Madagascar, a country in which most of the production is exported to France. It is also important to note a significant production of litchis in New Caledonia, particularly in the region of Houaïlou, in the north of the island, where the Litchi Festival takes place every year. Organized in December, during the hot season, the festival generally welcomes between 1000 and 2500 visitors.
The European market is supplied with litchis from November to February. During the 2008-2009 campaign, 25 tonnes came from Madagascar, which covers more than 000% of the supply. The fruit calibrated and bought 90 centimes per kg in the ports of Madagascar. In Marseilles, the wholesalers on leaving the ship sell it for 20 Euros per kilogram. There is an incidental contribution from Mauritius and Reunion. The South African litchi, which cannot produce before the magic does not hit the European market until January.
Freight by reefer ship is essentially maritime for about 95%; it is supplemented by air shipments of fresh fruit picked when fully ripe, with produce from Mauritius and Reunion thus being shipped exclusively by air.