Lychee and Longan
From the outside, the fruit of lychee is convex and concave, and longan is smooth, they seem to be much different, but they are all fruit trees of the Sapindaceae family!
In Taiwan, you can see lychees (Litchi chinensis) and longan (Dimocarpus longan) on fruit stalls since May; peeling off their little hard shells to reveal the pearl white flesh inside, biting down the sweet taste, is a favorite of many children! When I was young, I would compete with my friends in peeling the “bird eggs” : just peel off the outer skin(exocarp) of the lychee, leaving the thin white inner skin(endocarp) covered with the flesh. Doesn’t it look like bird eggs? However, longan cannot be used for peeling “bird eggs” because its endocarp and exocarp are very tightly adhered, so there is no way to play like this with it!
Both lychee and longan originated in southern China and moved to Taiwan with immigrants. In Taiwan, the main producing area of lychee is Kaohsiung, and longan is Tainan.
How did their names come from? In fact, the original name of lychee is “lizhi”（離支 or 離枝）, because its fruit is closely connected to the branches, so the branches that are connected to the fruit must be cut off when picking, hence its name; and longan is said to be because after the fruit was peeled, it was crystal clear and white, and the black pits inside were faintly visible, which looked like eyeballs, so it was named “Longan”! But in ancient times, because “dragon” (pronounced as “long”) can’t be said casually, and longan always matures when the osmanthus blossoms, so longan is also called “kui-yuan”（桂圓）!
In Taiwan, lychee is mainly eaten as a fruit; while longan can be eaten as a fruit, it can also be dried to make longan meat! In addition to traditional Chinese medicine, longan meat can also be added to Western-style cakes such as muffins to make desserts. In 2008, Mr. Wu Pao-chun（吳寶春，1970-） won the title of the Master Baker in the bread category of the 2010 Bakery Masters competition held in Paris with “wine-stuffed longan bread”, using longan meat!
When mentioning lychee in history, everyone would think of Concubine Yang Guifei（楊貴妃，719–756） of the Tang Dynasty. Concubine Yang loves to eat lychees. In order to please her, Tang Xuanzong（唐玄宗，685–762） uses fast horses relays to transport lychees from Sichuan and Guangdong to Chang’an every year when lychees are mature. “Concubine smiles with the fast horse, nobody knows that lychee is arriving.” hence the poem written by Du Mu（杜牧，803–852）. However, it is not something that only happened in the Tang Dynasty. The first emperor in China history to send lychees and longan with fast horses was Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty（漢武帝，156–87 BC）! Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty saw lychee and longan for the first time when his troops defeated Nanyue (now Guangdong). Then he transplanted lychee, longan and other exotic flowers and plants from the south to Chang’an, and built a Fuli palace (扶荔宮) for these southern flowers and plants. But the climate of northern China was too cold, and the lychee and longan were all gone before long, so Emperor Wu of the Han ordered the south to transport the lychee and longan to Chang’an every year with a fast horses relay! This matter did not stop until the time of Emperor An in the Eastern Han Dynasty （漢安帝，94–125）. Therefore, sending lychees with a fast horses relay is not the exclusive of Tang Xuanzong, nor is it only for sending lychees!
Why do they have to send lychees and longan with a fast horses relay? Can’t it be delivered with ease? Fast horses relay must be employed to deliver lychees and longan because these two kinds of fruits do not last to storage and can easily become sour under room temperature. In ancient times when refrigeration was not available; the only way to transport lychees was to use a fast horses relay!
People in other parts of the world did not know lychee and longan until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Chinese immigrants brought them across the ocean to Hawaii and Australia later, and hence more people have tasted the exotic fruits from southern China. With the advancement of food processing and preservation technology, not only can we eat fresh lychees and longan, but they can also be canned and shipped all over the world!
In addition to the edible fruits, longan and lychee are also important nectar plants. In March of each year, when longan and lychee trees begin to bloom, beekeepers move the beehives in trucks, and allow bees to gather in the orchard from south to north to collect honey. The honey harvested is the “longan honey” and “lychee honey”, which are very popular on the market. In recent years, global warming has caused unstable flowering of longan and lychee. In addition to affecting the production of these two fruits, the production of honey also has a big impact!
Finally, although lychee and longan are delicious, there will be some “irritable” reactions if you eat too much: nosebleeds and mouth ulcers. The mysterious encephalopathy that occurred in India a few years ago was also caused by children eating too much immature lychees, so one should be careful when eating longan and lychees!
