Meet the world's first lychee-longan hybrid

Researchers in South China are celebrating the first batch of fruit from a new hybrid litchi tree developed at Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

According to Xinhua News Agency, the plant is a crossbreed of lychee and longan that has been under development since 2015. This is the world's first new variety of its kind.

The science behind the new lychee hybrid

As explained by the local news outlet, lead investigator Ou Liangxi and his team selected a late-maturing lychee cultivar as the female parent and a longan cultivar as the male parent.

The researchers inactivated lychee pollen and mixed it with longan pollen for pollination, tricking the lychee pistil into self-pollinating, thereby fertilizing flowers and producing hybrid seeds.

"This tree is the first among all those hybrid seedlings to yield fruit," Shi Fachao, a researcher at the institute, told Xinhua News Agency.

Conveniently, this first batch of lychee-longan hybrids ripened in mid-May this year, which positively impacted the fruit's quality and eating experience.

"Compared with conventional early-maturing lychee of the same ripening period, which tend to taste tart and have low sugar content, the offspring of two late-ripening parents turned out to be an early-ripening germplasm, with flesh that is crisp, tender, and sweet, accompanied by a rich aroma," explained the news outlet.

This timing also comes to fill a gap in the market, which usually experiences a shortage of high-quality early-maturing lychee during that time of year. 

Sadly, consumers will have to wait between five and six years to see this new fruit in the produce aisle, as the lychee-longan hybrid is currently undergoing comparative varietal trials. 

*All images are referential. 

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