Litchis heaven

The litchi is native to the southern parts of China and northern Vietnam and has been grown there for centuries. It spread to India in the 1700s and probably spread to the West after its discovery in China by a Polish missionary. Litchi cultivation started in the West Indies in 1775 and was grown in greenhouses in Britain and France in the early 1800s.

Litchis were probably introduced in South Africa in the 1870s from Mauritius, where the currently-grown litchi cultivars come from. The first litchi tree was planted in the Botanical Gardens of Durban and spread from there to frost-free areas of Mpumalanga and Limpopo.

The Litchi season in South Africa begins around mid-October in the early areas of Malelane and Komatipoort in Mpumalanga, peaks in December and ends around the end of February with fruit picked in Nelspruit, Tzaneen and Louis Trichardt.

It seems that the quality of a litchi can be determined by the size of the stone inside. The smaller it is, the better the litchi …