Species
+

Dimocarpus longan Lour.

Longan, bual, dragon eye, dragon's-eye

Climate known 50 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Longan, also called lungan or dragon's eye, is a tropical tree species that produces edible fruit. It is one of the better-known tropical members of the soapberry family Sapindaceae, to which the lychee and rambutan also belong. The fruit of the longan is similar to lychee, but has a milder, and more subtle aroma and sweetness. The species is native to Southeast Asia and southern China. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Longan”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Dimocarpus

Dimocarpus is a genus of trees or shrubs in the flowering plant family Sapindaceae. It includes 7 species which grow naturally in tropical south and Southeast Asia, Malesia, Papuasia, and Australasia, including Sri Lanka, India, the Philippines, southern China, Taiwan, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea, East Timor, far north-eastern Queensland, Australia.

Text from Wikipedia, “Dimocarpus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Sapindaceae
Described by
Lour.
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast +18
Wild records
1409 in range· 515 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Jul, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2265mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Aug 394 mm (CHELSA)
Light
22–35DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 2265 mm a year, wettest August at 394 mm, driest January at 34 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 11.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Arytera leichhardtii var. hebepetala (Benth.) Radlk.; Dimocarpus longana Lam.; Dimocarpus longus F.Dietr.; Dimocarpus pupilla Moon; Dimocarpus undulatus Wight ex Wight & Arn. and 32 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1728 mm of 2265 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.8 °C against a yearly mean of 22.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 2265 mm a year, wettest August at 394 mm, driest January at 34 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2265 mm a year at the habitat, 1728 mm of it May to September. Wettest month August at 394 mm, driest January at 34 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1574 mm to 4043 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 11.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 11.0 °C, the absolute minimum 4.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 13.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells 9.3 °C to 19.1 °C), warmest day 29.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 11.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 62 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 20 °C in Jan to 30 °C in Jul; mean night from 13 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2265 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 594 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 4.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°37.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)4.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 22–35RH 62–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 594 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C20 / 17–2921 / 17–3023 / 20–3226 / 23–3228 / 25–3029 / 26–3030 / 25–3129 / 25–3128 / 25–3027 / 24–2824 / 21–2821 / 18–28
Night °C13 / 9–1914 / 11–2016 / 13–2120 / 17–2322 / 19–2424 / 20–2524 / 20–2624 / 20–2623 / 19–2521 / 18–2318 / 14–2114 / 11–20
Rain mm34 / 9–15966 / 15–19993 / 35–206157 / 73–242270 / 164–360390 / 192–624369 / 188–711394 / 188–699305 / 165–511105 / 43–39348 / 25–28734 / 16–181
DLI23 / 15–3525 / 18–3931 / 23–4134 / 27–3933 / 29–3633 / 26–3435 / 25–3832 / 25–3530 / 27–3229 / 23–3124 / 18–3022 / 16–32
RH %62 / 56–6763 / 55–6864 / 58–6865 / 61–6966 / 63–7166 / 63–7566 / 64–7467 / 65–7466 / 64–7364 / 61–7063 / 58–6862 / 56–67

Each figure is the median across the 594 grid cells holding the 1348 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1325:6007 (23.725, 120.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 594 distinct grid cells holding the 1348 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1325:6007 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 23.50_120.625, lapse-corrected -670 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 17 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera· introduced: Réunion, Taiwan, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., New Guinea, Society Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Florida
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker23.518, 120.594 · in the densest population, 810 records (57% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1409 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 515 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 36 km away. 135 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 61 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1409 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Dimocarpus longanDimocarpus longanDimocarpus longanDimocarpus longanDimocarpus longanDimocarpus longanDimocarpus longanDimocarpus longan

Photographs: (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (4); (c) madhavan a.p, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Dimocarpus longan, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Advances on Bioactive Polysaccharides from Medicinal Plants
Jianhua Xie, Ming-Liang Jin, Gordon A. Morris, Xue‐Qiang Zha (2015) · Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition
Postharvest biology and handling of longan fruit (Dimocarpus longan Lour.)
Yueming Jiang, Zhaoqi Zhang, Daryl C. Joyce, Saichol Ketsa (2002) · Postharvest Biology and Technology
Antioxidant activity of microwave-assisted extract of longan (Dimocarpus Longan Lour.) peel
Ying‐Ming Pan, Kai Wang, Siqin Huang, Heng‐Shan Wang (2007) · Food Chemistry
Extraction and pharmacological properties of bioactive compounds from longan (Dimocarpus longan Lour.) fruit — A review
Bao Yang, Yueming Jiang, John Shi, Feng Chen (2010) · Food Research International
Proximity to rainforest enhances pollination and fruit set in orchards
K. R. Blanche, John A. Ludwig, Saul A. Cunningham (2006) · Journal of Applied Ecology
Integrative Analysis of the Coloring Mechanism of Red Longan Pericarp through Metabolome and Transcriptome Analyses
Debao Yi, Hongna Zhang, Biao Lai, Liqin Liu (2020) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 76 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.