Litchi or Lychee

Just had to show you this before it is all gone! I blipped it on the tree on several occasions the past few days, but it just does not seem to look good, so, here they are, in a bowl!

R snr says our Litchi tree is a real Sissy! Every second year it bears a big harvest of fruit, and then, the last weekend in November, we get a fierce windstorm, and more than half the tree breaks off!! Then we pick all the slightly discolored, but not yet ripe, litchis off the broken branches and keep them cooled for about two weeks, to ripen.

Note in the picture, the brown fruit in the middle of the picture, is one of those picked two weeks ago, the skin turns dry and hard, and has to be chipped off, like an egg shell, the fruit is still delicious, one of the peeled fruit in the picture is from that bunch, and the shell like skin in the very front of the picture is from that as well!

The freshly picked fruit in the picture, are in different stages of ripening, therefore the colors range from green to reddish brown. When you peel them at this stage, the rind comes off easily, as seen on the half peeled one, in front of the bowl.

The fruit is a drupe, 3?4 cm long and 3 cm in diameter. The skin has a pink-red, roughly-textured rind, inedible but easily removed. The fruit consists of a layer of sweet, translucent white flesh, rich in vitamin C, the texture quite like that of a grape. The edible flesh envelopes a single glossy brown, nut shaped seed, about 2 cm long and 1?1.5 cm in diameter. The seed is not poisonous but should not be eaten, it has a real bitter and dry taste. The fruit matures from August to end November, about 100 days after flowering

They require a warm subtropical to tropical climate that is frost free and high summer heat, with high rainfall, and humidity.

The tree is medium-sized and evergreen, about 15?20 m tall, with alternate pinnate leaves, about 15?25 cm long, with 2-8 lateral leaflets 5?10 cm long. The new young leaves are a bright coppery red at first, before turning green as they grow to full size. The flowers are small, greenish-white or yellowish-white, produced in panicles up to 30 cm long.

For more pictures and information, see Wikipedia.