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From Yunnan to a luxury for emperors: Scientists track down the history of the beloved lychee
- A team of global scientists sequenced the DNA of various lychee plants to create a genetic history of the fruit
- They believe the first plants grew in Yunnan province and spread across China via the Xijiang River
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With its bumpy peelable skin, large pit and juicy meat, the humble lychee is one of the most iconic fruits in Asia.
It is also steeped in history. The lychee first appeared in historical records in China in 200BC. Centuries later, Chinese leaders during the Tang dynasty (618 to 907) organised a horse relay system to deliver the fruits from southwest China to the imperial courts.
In Guangzhou, a lychee tree thought to be over 1,000 years old consistently bears fruit to this day.
However, despite its status as a luxury for emperors, a popular recipe ingredient or a munchable snack, nobody knew where the lychee first appeared, until this month.
In early January, a group of scientists published a report in Nature Genetics that explained how, by sequencing the DNA of lychee plants, they theorised that the first lychees appeared in the wild in Yunnan province in southwest China tens of thousands of years ago.
“Like a puzzle, we are piecing together the history of what humans did with lychee,” said Victor Albert, a University at Buffalo evolutionary biologist.
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