Lychee

Litchi chinensis

Sapindaceae

A Chinese soapberry with a red shell — peel it, eat the glass-white aril, spit the seed, and do not make a meal of unripe fruit.

Ripe peeled arils are food. Unripe fruit on an empty stomach has a documented hypoglycemia story in malnourished children — this is ripe fruit as dessert, not a fast.

Parts used: Ripe aril
Traditional notes: Kitchen fruit · Traditional Chinese summer fruit
Grow · USDA 6b: Subtropical tree, USDA 10–11. Wants a cool dry winter to fruit well. A named air-layer. Seedlings are a long maybe. In work: Jun · Jul
Harvest: When the shell is fully red and the fruit feels full. They do not ripen off the tree.

They brown after picking. Eat soon.
A frost takes the flush.

Safety

Unripe fruit as a meal, especially in children who have not eaten The seed

Lore

Tang dynasty courts already demanded them on ice. The Chinese lízhī is older than the English spelling arguments (lychee, litchi, lichi). A 2010s outbreak in Bihar was unripe fruit, undernourished children, and a toxin that inhibits gluconeogenesis — a public-health story, not a reason to fear a ripe bowl after dinner.

The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.