Lychee
Litchi chinensis
A subtropical soapberry. Peel the rough rind; eat the white aril; do not eat the seed. Related to longan and rambutan.
GROW → HARVEST → EAT → DRY → POWDER → CAPSULE → GUMMY — forms are not equivalent. Food first.
Identity
What it is
A subtropical soapberry. Peel the rough rind; eat the white aril; do not eat the seed. Related to longan and rambutan.
Edible portions
- aril
Absence of a portion from this list means it is not treated as food here — not that every other part is toxic.
Growing
- Climate. 10–11 with a slight chill for some cultivars
- Light. Full sun, humid
- Soil. Well-drained, acid-leaning
- Planting. Not a temperate tree.
- Harvest. When rind colors fully; they don’t sweeten much off-tree.
Preparation and culinary uses
- Fresh; canned is a different texture
Nutrition and compounds
- Vitamins (qualitative, well-known associations). vitamin C — not milligram values.
AAA interpretation Food first. These associations explain why a plant shows up in a nutrient conversation — they are not a supplement shopping list.
Safety
- Seed is not food. Undernourished children eating large amounts of unripe lychee on empty stomachs has been a documented outbreak topic — ripe fruit as dessert is the ordinary use.
Next steps
Sources
- USDA PLANTS Database — taxonomy and range (verify current entries)
- USDA FoodData Central — nutrient profiles for foods (verify current entries; this page does not invent milligrams)
- State cooperative extension growing guides — verify for your region
Honest incompleteness is preferred to fabricated completeness. If a section is missing, no record for it is attached here — not a claim that the plant lacks that characteristic, and not that it was omitted as a secret.
Internal quality class A. Strong page: distinctive plant facts plus practical growing or kitchen use.