Species
+

Litchi chinensis Sonn.

Lichee, Lychee, leechee, lichia

Climate known 58 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

Lychees are the fruit of the tree Litchi chinensis, the sole member of the genus Litchi, part of the soapberry family, Sapindaceae. They are edible, with a sweet, mildly tart flavor, and have a distinctive floral aroma often described as rose-like.

Text from Wikipedia, “Lychee”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Litchi

Lychees are the fruit of the tree Litchi chinensis, the sole member of the genus Litchi, part of the soapberry family, Sapindaceae. They are edible, with a sweet, mildly tart flavor, and have a distinctive floral aroma often described as rose-like.

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

Family
Sapindaceae
Described by
Sonn.
Native to
Hainan, China Southeast, Assam +9
Wild records
250 in range· 118 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Jul, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2078mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 366 mm (CHELSA)
Light
22–34DLI
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 2078 mm a year, wettest June at 366 mm, driest January at 27 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 6.7 °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 Euphoria litchi A.Juss.; Laetjii chinensis (Sonn.) Osb.; Laetjii chinensis (Sonn.) Osb. ex Steud.; Nephelium dimocarpus Hook.f. & Thomson ex Hook.f.

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 (1583 mm of 2078 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.3 °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 2078 mm a year, wettest June at 366 mm, driest January at 27 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2078 mm a year at the habitat, 1583 mm of it May to September. Wettest month June at 366 mm, driest January at 27 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1467 mm to 3144 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 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 34 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 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).

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 6.7 °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 6.7 °C, the absolute minimum 2.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells 7.5 °C to 21.5 °C), warmest day 29.7 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 6.7 °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: 59 to 68% 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 19 °C in Jan to 30 °C in Jul; mean night from 12 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2078 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 182 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 2.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°31.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)2.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 22–34RH 59–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 182 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 °C19 / 16–2820 / 17–2923 / 20–3126 / 24–3228 / 26–3129 / 27–3130 / 27–3130 / 27–3129 / 26–3027 / 24–2924 / 21–2920 / 18–28
Night °C12 / 8–2214 / 10–2217 / 13–2320 / 16–2423 / 19–2525 / 21–2625 / 21–2625 / 21–2624 / 19–2521 / 17–2417 / 12–2313 / 8–22
Rain mm27 / 10–13155 / 17–15577 / 31–180160 / 68–260281 / 159–350366 / 187–477325 / 193–499341 / 191–473270 / 140–38899 / 61–29949 / 31–24328 / 13–139
DLI22 / 16–3122 / 17–3427 / 20–3830 / 25–4031 / 27–3631 / 26–3434 / 25–3731 / 27–3430 / 26–3229 / 23–3125 / 20–2922 / 17–28
RH %61 / 57–6963 / 55–6864 / 55–6965 / 59–7066 / 63–7168 / 64–7267 / 64–7168 / 64–7166 / 63–6963 / 59–6861 / 57–6759 / 55–67

Each figure is the median across the 182 grid cells holding the 241 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 1352:5882 (22.375, 114.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 2.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 6.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.9 °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 182 distinct grid cells holding the 241 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1352:5882 (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 22.50_114.375, lapse-corrected +109 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 162 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.
NativeHainan, China Southeast, Assam, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Malaya, Philippines, New Guinea· introduced: Mauritius, Réunion, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Andaman Is., Cambodia
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker22.396, 114.109 · in the densest population, 112 records (45% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 250 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 118 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 681 km away. 436 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 9 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 250 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Litchi chinensisLitchi chinensisLitchi chinensisLitchi chinensisLitchi chinensisLitchi chinensisLitchi chinensisLitchi chinensis

Photographs: (c) CYL, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Roland Godon, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Frédérique, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Len Worthington, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Subhadra Devi, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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 Litchi chinensis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Chemical Composition, Antioxidant, and Antibacterial Activity of Wood Vinegar from Litchi chinensis
Jyh‐Ferng Yang, Cheng‐Hong Yang, Ming‐Tsai Liang, Zijie Gao (2016) · Molecules
Nutrient components, health benefits, and safety of litchi ( Litchi chinensis Sonn.): A review
Lei Zhao, Kun Wang, Kai Wang, Jie Zhu (2020) · Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety
Energy status of ripening and postharvest senescent fruit of litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.)
Hui Wang, Zhengjiang Qian, Sanmei Ma, Yuchuan Zhou (2013) · BMC Plant Biology
Immunomodulatory and anticancer activities of flavonoids extracted from litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) pericarp
Mouming Zhao, Bao Yang, Jinshui Wang, Yang Liu (2006) · International Immunopharmacology
LcGST4 is an anthocyanin-related glutathione S-transferase gene in Litchi chinensis Sonn.
Bing Hu, Jietang Zhao, Biao Lai, Yonghua Qin (2016) · Plant Cell Reports
Litchi chinensis: medicinal uses, phytochemistry, and pharmacology
Sabrin R. M. Ibrahim, Gamal A. Mohamed (2015) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology

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 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (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 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; 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 100 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.